


Butterflies

by creationofclay



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Scott, Angst, Coming Out, Creeper Peter, Jealous Isaac, M/M, POV Isaac Lahey, POV Stiles, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-12 17:59:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1194366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creationofclay/pseuds/creationofclay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles’s doesn’t even know how he stumbled into this thing with Ethan, he just knows that Isaac is acting weird, and that he can’t even begin to categorize his own emotions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in Season 3 before the rave (Episode Illuminated).

\---Stile’s POV---

Another look at the clock tells Stiles that it’s 2 am now, lying in his bed and attempting to get comfortable, he tries not to think how little sleep he will get once again. But then maybe it’s better that sleep eludes him, because the nightmares aren’t any more relaxing than staying awake.  
Stiles punches his pillow in frustration, stupid nightmares, stupid sleepless nights!

Suddenly his window glides open and Stiles yelps in surprise.

“What the hell are you doing here!”

Yes he knows he should be used to stupid werewolves seeing his closed! window as an open invitation to enter, but this is going too far!

“If Derek wants something he can ask for it himself, and anyway has no one of you heard of something called a phone, I know you use yours, I always see you playing with it in chemistry.”

Stiles isn’t sure if mentioning that he watched the werewolf in school was a good move. He twists on his bed slightly embarrassed.

Isaac just smirks still standing by the window and not saying anything. Oh how they all annoy him why were all werewolves so good at keeping silent? Stiles could never outlast them.

“Okay, what do you want?” Stiles sighs and leans back on the wall behind his bed, he is just so tired, all he wants to do is sleep but he can’t really blame his lack of sleep on Isaac if he weren’t having this stupid one sided conversation he would probably have nightmares so it doesn’t matter.

One of Isaac’s eyebrows pops up it almost seems like an expression of worry, but that is just Stiles’s sleepless brain talking.

Finally Isaac speaks, “Derek says it would be good for Scott to have the twins in his pack.”

Stiles slams his head against his wall. The already formed bump hurts now even more, but his brain doesn’t feel so foggy anymore at least.

Isaac looks shocked at him, Stiles just shakes his head, “So suddenly we think that having murderous teenagers in our pack is a good idea?”

Isaac opens his mouth as if he wants to comment Stiles’s behaviour but decides otherwise, “They would make Scott stronger! And anyway Peter is part of the pack, so why not?”

Stiles flailing with his arms a bit, not with his normal amount of energy, “Oh Peter, that is a whole other story!”

Stiles breathes out deflated, this has to have a point!

“Anyway, no matter what my opinion, why are you here, shouldn’t this all be a discussion with Scott?”

Isaac smirks again, oh how Stiles loves this cocky look on him, “Don’t sell yourself short, it’s not as if your opinion isn’t the deciding factor for Scott more often than not.”

Stiles is surprised at the admission.

Isaac, “Anyway Derek already talked with him, and they decided that they need a bit more proof that the twins can be trusted and you are the perfect person to feel them out.”

Suddenly Stiles feels weak, he wants to scream or vomit or cry.  
He swallows heavily trying to contain his emotions. Isaac eyes him suspiciously.

“So you want your pet human to get close to them and if I get out alive they can be trusted?”

Isaac shocked, “What? Why? What the hell Stiles, how do you get such stupid ideas! It’s just that Scott thinks that you are pretty good at assessing people. Derek seems to share that opinion.”

Stiles just nods, he is tired! Does no one get that?

He walks over to his window and gestures Isaac to leave, “I will try, but I can’t promise anything.” Under his breath he mumbles, “At least they are nice to look at.”

Isaac stops abruptly just in front of the window, and suddenly Stiles has a hand in his hair where his bump is hidden and he feels how Isaac absorbs any pain he might have. He feels sleepy in the good way for once. And Isaac is gone.

\--

Next day at school is great, for once Stiles slept the whole night, he is even over his grudge for Isaac’s outrageous request, he will just try to concentrate on Ethan, who seems to have at least a conscience.

Not that he isn’t still a bit mad at Scott for not talking to him directly, so instead of going to Scott’s locker, where Scott is waiting for him, he goes to the twins on the other side of the corridor.

He can’t deny that his heart is beating fast.

“How is it going? Already decided what you are wearing for Danny’s rave?”

Ethan flinches at the mention of Danny. Aiden just looks at Stiles waiting for an explanation of his presence. Stiles ignores him and lays his hand on Ethan’s arm, or better biceps, wow that is just rock hard, not the thing he should concentrate on right now. 

“Oh man I am sorry! Shouldn’t have mentioned him, but really let’s be honest here his loss, I mean his recycled ex has nothing on you.”

And despite the fact that Stiles is rather happy that Danny isn’t involved with any supernatural creature at the moment he truly means his words.

Ethan eyes him and then his hand and something like realization appears in his eyes, Aiden just snickers.

And all of a sudden Stiles grasps how what he just said could have been taken. He jerks his hand away, moves it through his hair awkwardly while also trying to step away, which with his perfect coordination naturally doesn’t work and he can already see himself falling when a strong hand grabs him by his arm.

The strong hand belongs to Ethan who is smiling at him shyly now, “So, I am guessing you are going to the Rave?”

Stiles is nodding completely perplex that Ethan didn’t only not just kill him for coming on to him but is also helping and maybe flirting with him, could that be? How could someone like Ethan flirt with someone like him?

Ethan still holding his arm, which feels rather nicely Stiles has to admit, “So would you maybe want to go with me? I could pick you up beforehand.”

Stiles swallows hard, he just got asked out didn’t he? By one of the hottest people at school. But he isn’t even finished with his sexual identity crisis yet, but then who is he kidding, he loves the feeling of Ethan’s hand and part of him is already imagining it stroking his chest. And he knows that the thoughts he has for his fellow pack mates with the big exception of Scott aren’t all too pure either. So okay why not come out with a date with a really, really hot dude, he can do that, maybe.

Stiles realizes that he has been silent for unusually long, but Ethan still just stands there unconcerned and a bit hopefully letting him have his little identity crisis that makes Stiles smile, “Yes I would love to.”

He can hear a growl from somewhere behind him and Aiden is laughing but Stiles is distracted by the grin that forms on Ethan’s face.

\--

The day goes by in a breeze, Stiles can’t really decide between his feelings of elevation and fear, he still doesn’t know what he feels when he enters the dining hall for lunch break. They are all sitting together, and Stiles gets more nervous than he should be. He walks over to them, annoyed that Isaac occupies the place next to Scott when he realizes that that means he will sit next to Ethan.

Scott looks up at him and asks, “Everything alright, your heart is racing.”

Well and there goes his dignity, fucking werewolf senses. Stiles sits down next to Ethan who smiles encouragingly at him. Aiden snickers, and Isaac gives him the stink eye.

Aiden cocks his eyebrow in perfectly villainess fashion and asks Isaac, “What’s your problem?”

Stiles is just confused they seem to have some kind of discussion that he doesn’t understand. Ethan lays his hand calmingly on his arm and whispers, “They are just being stupid. Just let them.”

Stiles tries to calm himself, but Ethan’s stroking thumb is pretty distracting. Instead of answering Aiden’s question Isaac now turns his glare to Ethan, he looks really mad, Ethan just looks back calmly without moving his hand. Isaac pushes Scott in his rips who had been in a discussion with Kira, and says, “Aren’t you going to do anything?”

Scott just looks confused, sometimes Stiles finds it really amusing that the fact that he has alpha powers now didn’t really help his grasp on situations. Not that Stiles is getting what is going on right now. Isaac glances significantly to where Ethan’s hand is stroking Stiles’s bare arm. Scott still seems to be confused, “What? We heard them this morning, I don’t see the problem here, Stiles can take care of himself, can’t you?” He asks Stiles and Stiles grins, sometimes Scott just says the things that confirm his status as best bro for life, “Yeah no problem here, don’t really know what crawled up Isaac’s ass.”

And Aiden is laughing again; he seems to know something that eludes the rest of them.  
Isaac just stands up and leaves with an annoyed huff.

Stiles concerned, “Do you know what is up with him? Did I do something?”

Scott waves with his hand, “Nah, he is just moody today and you know pack meeting tonight.”

Stiles just nods and lets his knee touch Ethan’s this closeness touching thing is weird, his hormones are running wild, but it isn’t completely like he expected it to be. He always thought when he would be with someone it would feel magical like the description in books this felt good he was giddy and happy but he also was aware of the looks they got and the weirdness Isaac’s leaving left behind.

\--

Stiles is the first at Derek’s for the pack meeting, not even Derek is in sight, well that’s not too bad, Stiles wanted to go through his DVDs anyway. While he skims the nice collection of Martial Arts and Marvel films someone creeps up on him. He just ignores it, he is used to the werewolves’ weird behaviour.

A hand suddenly skims his arm softly and he jerks away and turns. Creepy Peter naturally, Stiles just catches how Peter’s uncanny smile falls when he sniffs the air around him.

Thankfully the arrival of Scott, Isaac and the twins interrupts them. That seems to be enough to make Derek appear from another room.

Derek, “Peter don’t scare the human!”

Ethan and Isaac both take a step towards them at the same time.

Peter just ignores them, “Did you know that our Stiles has spent a bit of touchy time with this one.” He points at Ethan with disgust.

Derek cocks his eyebrow at Stiles. Stiles blushes. And Peter snatches his arm where Ethan stroked him just hours ago and starts to touch it at the same place. His heart speeds up in fear, Ethan growls and almost jumps Peter, but Isaac is faster he pushes Peter away so hard that he leaves a tent in the wall and stands in front of Stiles, “Don’t ever!”

Stiles is completely perplex he can feel the stares of everyone else on them but he can’t stop concentrating on Isaac’s back, he breathes heavily as to contain his anger. Stiles never thought that Isaac would do something like that for him. He just mumbles, “Thank you.”

Isaac turns slowly and looks him in his eyes; he seems surprised by Stiles’s words. Suddenly Ethan is by his side and lays his arm over Stiles’ shoulders giving Isaac a suspicious glance before asking, “Are you okay?”

\---Isaac’s POV---

After a hideously awkward pack meeting Isaac finally sits in the car with Scott, as soon as they are out of listening range Scott asks, “What the hell was going on with you today?”

Isaac huffs and tries to ignore his inquiring glance. To be honest he has no idea. He just knows that he can’t stand Ethan being close to Stiles. He doesn’t want to say that out loud he knows how it would sound and with the weird shifty sexual identity thing his friends seem to have going on he doesn’t want them to suspect anything. Because he is not gay!

He is slightly annoyed that Stiles is, he knows he shouldn’t be, he accepts Danny, maybe even Ethan before today. But Stiles, maybe they weren’t friends but close enough and now…

His father would have got a hissy fit just from knowing that he sat on the same table with someone who is gay that he may want to be friends with someone like that… Just thinking about his father’s reaction stocks his breathing and reminds him of confined space, darkness and helplessness.

Scott’s look grows concerned, he sniffed his fear, well at least he gets better at distinguishing emotions, Stiles would call that a win.  
Fuck! Isaac has really no idea why all his thoughts today are circling around this awkward kid.

And what he did with Peter, he can’t remember being so furious, ever. Maybe he dislikes Ethan’s interactions with Stiles but what Peter did, how much fear he ignited in Stiles… Isaac knows the story of Peter asking Stiles if he wants the bite, but he suspects that he and maybe not even Scott know the whole story. Because that kind of panic from someone like Stiles, who faced a lot more dangerous creatures with a calmer heartbeat, that was just disconcerting and Isaac doesn’t get why the others didn’t get that. He will admit, only to himself, that he was glad that Ethan got also protective of Stiles and was eyeing Peter with suspicion. But he didn’t have to sit as close as he did.

Isaac huffs in annoyance he can’t make any sense of his own thoughts!

Scott carefully, “So you don’t want to tell me what is going on?”

Isaac, “I don’t know, okay? I just… I don’t think that Ethan is to be trusted and Peter was acting like an asshole!”

Scott, “Yes he was, I would have intervened too if you hadn’t been faster but I mean no offense man, but I didn’t even know that you liked Stiles.”

Isaac swallows hard, he hates this, why do people always think that he is an asshole, before the bite he was too quiet, too shy and now he is too snarky, too confident. If he would tell Scott now that he watched Stiles before his bite, that Stiles was the kid he was most jealous of, what would he think of him?

Isaac remembers seeing Stiles getting picked up by his father more than once how they obviously loved and trusted each other. And he admired the other boy for being able to speak up for himself and for having a comment for everything when Isaac couldn’t even say hello loud enough for others to pick up. And maybe Stiles hadn’t been the most popular one but he had always had this one trusted friend.  
Yes as long as Isaac can remember he wanted to have what Stiles had. And then he got bitten and he could smell emotions and he realized how broken Stiles really was.  
Sometimes, not often, he wants to hit Scott really hard for not realizing how messed up his best friend is. He knows that Derek and Peter can pick it up too, they exchange enough looks to confirm that. But Scott doesn’t seem to realize it; he even mentioned Stiles panic attacks like something long past, when Isaac could smell the fear in Stiles room as if the whole room was soaked through. And maybe that is all there is to it, he found out that the person he most idolized was more broken than he ever thought and that’s why he wants to keep him safe. Yes that is good reasoning he will go with that.

\--

Later that night Isaac enters Stiles’s room once again.

Stiles doesn’t look as tired as the night before but he doesn’t look relaxed either, he just lays there on his bed staring at the ceiling.

Isaac makes himself known, Stiles doesn’t even startle this time; he just sighs.

“Anything important going on?”

Isaac shakes his head and adds, “No, it’s not … I just wanted to check up and see if you are okay.”

Stiles turns his head and looks at him confused, Isaac sits down on his desk chair.

Stiles, “Well, thanks for your concern, but I really don’t get why checking up on me should be your duty.”

Isaac looking at his hands, “Someone has to, and since no one else seemed to get what was going on.”

Stiles looks at him suspiciously, “What was going on?”

Isaac, “I mean Peter, he … he did something didn’t he?”

Stiles sits up abruptly, “No matter what, that is not your concern!”

Isaac still looking at his hands, “I know … I just know that feeling, but I mean if you want to talk about it, I can promise that I would never tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”

Stiles, “What feeling do you think you know?”

Isaac looks up and directly in Stiles’ inquiring eyes now, “I know that feeling of sheer terror and helplessness you get when someone who has tortured you before gets close.”

Stiles exhales shocked and moves closer so that their knees almost touch, “I am sorry! I didn’t mean to… it’s not the same with Peter, it was only one time and it’s not as if he hurt me … very much. It’s just he, he proposed stuff that was disturbing, I am overreacting, I know!”

Isaac can’t help himself he leans in and lays his hand on Stiles’ knee it should be comforting, it feels awkward, “No! You are not overreacting, I see how he looks at you how he … smells, I don’t want to disturb you, just, I have a pretty good idea what he wants from you.”

Stiles shudders visibly, “He is such a creep!”

Isaac smiles, “Agreed”

Suddenly the feeling in the room shifts and Stiles looks from Isaac’s hand into his eyes and unconsciously licks his lips. Isaac can’t help but look at these lips, because these lips have always been fucking distracting. And another thought he definitely shouldn’t have.

He jerks back fast and says, “Well if you don’t want to talk about it any more I will just leave you alone.”

Stiles looks at him in thought while Isaac moves to the window.

Before he is out Stiles asks, “Why do you dislike me being with Ethan so much?”

Isaac curses under his breath, “I … I don’t really know, okay? It’s just … we can’t trust him, he shouldn’t be so close to you!”

Stiles nods slowly and a sad little smile forms on his lips, “I think I get that, but I mean what should I do, he is nice, he is hot and he is interested, I mean how often will I get a combination of that?”

Isaac looks at him astounded, he already knew that Stiles had lower self esteem than most people thought but this, this is just stupid how could someone that is as intelligent as him, someone who made himself indispensible to a werewolf pack say stuff like that. And what the fuck with these sinful lips and graceful hands he would just need one visit to Jungle to have his next boyfriend, not that that thought sat comfortable with Isaac.

“You are stupid! I mean you are the smartest person I know, but you are still dumb as hell. Ethan is for sure not the only one out there, who would be interested, and anyway the question should be do you want to be with him and not is he the only one who wants you.”

Stiles looks at him like a deer caught in headlights, “Okay, yes maybe I have to think a bit more about that … thank you. Anyway you know Lydia too.”

Isaac just smirks, “I stand by my statement.” And he is gone.


	2. Chapter 2

\---Stile’s POV---

The next day Stiles is tired again; he didn’t get a lot of sleep the last night but this time not because of nightmares. No Isaac confused him, what was he getting at? Stiles is sure that the other boy isn’t interested in him, but still he acted kind of like he cared. And Stiles is self-aware enough to realize that his attraction to grumpy gorgeous looking werewolves has been including Isaac for a while. Derek is now more like a big brother anyway. Stiles just thought that Isaac didn’t like him, that doesn’t seem to be true though. If it were, he wouldn’t care so much or would he? And that was the circle his thoughts took all night long, with some happy replays of the smack that Peter’s body made when he hit the wall.

Stiles always thought that when he finally had someone to date he would be solely dedicated to that person, with some special time for Scott naturally, but now he isn’t even sure if he should go to Ethan or to Scott and Isaac. He feels like he is drawn in two different directions.

He walks over to Scott, and not because of Isaac, but because that is what he does every day.

He leans against the locker and asks, “Any conclusion if they are in the pack yet?”

Scott looks at him confused, “Well that depends on what you think, doesn’t it?”

Stiles also confused, “What?”

Scott looks at Isaac, “I thought you explained it to him.”

Isaac mutters to the ground, “I might not have expressed myself very well.”

Scott shakes his head, “Anyway, you will asses them and then tell us what you think, if you trust them I trust them too, if you don’t, well you get the gist.”

Stiles can’t help but grin suddenly and embarks in an epic hug of Scott, “Ah man sometimes you truly deserve being my BFF.”

Scott huffs, “Only sometimes?”

Isaac grins at them both, Stiles looks up from his hug at Isaac, and their eyes meet, Isaac’s smile gets more intimate and Stiles has to bite his lip to hide his own shy smile.

As soon as they break their hug Scott looks around, “Did Ethan just walk by?”

Stiles looks at him questioningly.

Scott, “Well you just smelled like, you know.”

And Stiles gets red like a tomato, “I need to run, don’t want to be late for Math.” He avoids looking at Isaac.

\--

The next two days consist of a lot of ducking to keep the time he has to spend in speaking distance with Isaac to a minimum, on the positive side he and Ethan have talked more and it seems that the other one isn’t only really hot but also interesting, and their hate for Math is equally deep. Ethan kept touching him, it has been weird they seemed to have jumped right from okay we want to go out with each other to being together, without even having a date before. But Ethan talked to Stiles about that yesterday after school, he explained that since werewolves could smell emotions a lot of them just went with the unconscious response of their vis-à-vis. 

So his unconscious response is obviously that he likes the touching part and that is fine with him, but also a bit scary, because Stiles feels as if he never gets the chance to say he wants something in this relationship because his body answers before he even realizes.  
And now he is standing in front of a pile of his t-shirts and can’t decide what to wear. Because despite everything that already happened this would still be his first date with Ethan and he wants to leave a good impression not that he seems to have to. Ethan seems to like him anyway, not that Stiles really gets why. And for once that is not because of some low self-esteem issue but because of the fact that he isn’t his funniest or even normal self around Ethan. He always gets self-conscious and weirdly silent. And if that is what Ethan likes?

Ah Stiles is getting crazy here, with nightmares and stuff like first man-to-man kisses he didn’t get any sleep last night again. Because after their weird talk Ethan kissed him, which was nice, it felt good. Ethan had been gentle about it, had taken his head into his hands and slowly opened his lips with his tongue before darting inside. It was nice and Stiles’s body wanted more that much was obvious that was probably why Ethan left grinning. But if Stiles is honest with himself he has to admit that he isn’t sure if he really wants more. Yes he said often enough that he wants sex, that he finally wants to loose his virginity and that still stands, but this, he is not sure if this is working for him. One thing he knows about his obsession with Lydia, no matter how ill advised and useless it was, was that it had been romantic. Maybe it had just been a phantasy, yes, but it had been the way he wanted it to be. It still is what he wants, maybe not with Lydia, or a girl per se, but he still believes in being swept away and being fiercely unconditionally in love. And Stiles is beginning to see that that really is not what he feels for Ethan and okay it has only been four days since this whole thing started, but he should feel a bit more romantic attraction shouldn’t he? Stiles lets himself fall into the pile of shirts on his bed while grunting frustrated.

His father knocks carefully before letting himself in, “I am sorry son, but I couldn’t help overhearing a sound of discomfort?”

“Oh my god! Have you been reading parental guidebooks again?”

His father smiles and sits down on his desk chair, “Nah, Jeff from work just keeps talking about all these ‘right’ ways to talk to teenagers.”

“Please tell Jeff that he shouldn’t start giving you tips before his daughter gets to know a few werewolves and starts dating one of them.”

“What?”

“Argh, I didn’t mean to… I think I have to tell you something.”

Slowly Stiles sits up and looks his father in the eyes, for once he doesn’t mind that he talked too much, because he doesn’t want to have secrets from his father anymore and he already thought a lot about how to tell him.

“I think, I mean I know that I probably am, no I mean definitely am at least bisexual.”

His father waves with his hand in a gesture as to continue, “Yeah got that, no problem with that, but which werewolf are you dating?”

Stiles stares at him disbelievingly before his face breaks into a grin, his father is awesome!

“Don’t worry about that, I don’t think it will go on much longer.”

“And why would that be?”

Stiles fiddles with his hands nervously, “Do you remember when you told me about how it was when you first met mom, how everything stood still and even fighting felt like something new and exciting?”

His father nods.

“Well it doesn’t feel like that, not that we ever fought, but it just … I always believed that it has to feel like, I don’t know, more.”

“I am proud of you son, not a lot of teenagers admit to themselves that just because they are slightly attracted to someone it doesn’t mean that they should be together.”

“So you don’t think I am overreacting and like want too much?”

His father hugs him fiercely and says, “You can never want too much, you will find the person that makes your heart shudder, that lets the butterflies loose and that is worth fighting for and with.”

And with that his father leaves him to his initial outfit dilemma.

\---Isaac’s POV---

Isaac isn’t sure what he is doing here. Everything is wrong now!

Just a week ago he thought about taking Allison to Danny’s rave and continuing their awkward flirting, and now ah! He can see Allison standing close to the DJ console getting talked up by some guy with paint in his face and the only feeling that steers up is slight annoyance. He has no clue what happened between then and now that had such an impact on his feelings. Okay he gets that this rave can’t get him excited anymore since it started that whole Ethan and Stiles thing but it shouldn’t have had such an influence on his thing with Allison. But it is probably better like this anyway, this way he won’t compromise his friendship with Scott.

Without his permission his eyes search for Stiles in this crammed room. His whole body is prepared to see him dancing way too close with Ethan, what he sees instead surprises him.

Stiles is leaning against the wall close to the balcony wistfully watching the crowd. Ethan dances with some guy on the other side of the room. Before he even realizes Isaac is on his way to Stiles.

Finally after way too many people tried to dance with him Isaac is standing next to Stiles, “What happened with Ethan?” he screams over the music.

Stiles shakes his head gesturing to his ears and screaming “Can’t hear you!” he then gestures to the balcony door, and Isaac follows him outside, closing the door behind them.

Stiles leans onto the balustrade gazing into the night smiling calmly while taking a sip of his beer, “It’s nice out here!”

Isaac looks at him contemplative, he has rarely seen Stiles like this, so calm and thoughtful.

Stiles turns and now looks directly at Isaac, calm smile still in place, “You were asking something?”

Isaac nods slowly, he has a weird lump in his throat, it seems hard to breath out here, “I just, I saw that you weren’t with Ethan.”

“Ah that, well as it turns out we are not that good of a match after all, nothing bad just no butterflies.”

Stiles grins at him and turns again, admiring the view.

And Isaac is suddenly furious, how does Stiles do this, say the simplest things that would sound awkward and weird if other people said them and just sounded utterly sincere with him? And how could someone who had been through so much, who had such big self-esteem issues, be such a fucking romantic? And why the hell did he tell Isaac that, and why does he care, why is he still standing here staring at Stiles’s back and not inside glaring at whoever Allison is with, why doesn’t he care what Allison does, but still gets angry to a fault if he thinks of Ethan touching Stiles?

Suddenly Stiles turns and gestures his beer in his direction, “Do you want some?”

Isaac looks at the beer dumbly and then just takes it, which means he has to get closer to Stiles, which means he can finally really smell him, and a weird tension he didn’t know he had leaves him when he smells Stiles without an overlay of Ethan. He takes a sip of beer when he realizes that he can taste Stiles on the bottle, that he can taste the slight pepperminty, grassy, airy essence that is Stiles. He gives the bottle back abruptly and steps back.

Stiles stares at him, “Everything okay? You seem a bit freaked tonight.”

Isaac tries to nod, but his hands are balled to fists and Stiles just makes him so angry sometimes, how can he be so confusing?

“You are just… I don’t get you, just days ago you thought you were attracted to him and now you decided ‘no, not enough’?”

Not really what he wanted to say, but way better than the truth.

Stiles looks at him surprised, “I thought you would be thrilled! I didn’t say that I wasn’t still attracted to him” Isaac has a hard time keeping his growl in “but that doesn’t mean that I want to be with him, I am not in love with him, I don’t even have a crush on him, that can’t be a good start for anything. And Ethan agreed, he said that I was a nice pastime but that if he was honest he still had feelings for Danny. So everything’s good.”

Isaac heard the little flutter when Stiles mentioned Ethan’s agreement, and again he gets angry this time not at Stiles.

“He hurt your feelings.”

Stiles stunned “What the hell! Yeah okay, but I ended it, so I wasn’t any better, and why do you care anyway?”

Isaac just ignores the question; “You didn’t start something while having feelings for someone else so he was in the wrong obviously!”

Stiles suddenly blushes, and Isaac is getting confused, he doesn’t know what he said that could have such a flustering effect on the other teen.

Stiles swallows hard, “Well, I mean, maybe not a definite … not that it is important or any of your business, but I mean I just took Ethan up on his offer because he asked, I mean before, it was not like Ethan was on my thoughts when I thought about guys I was attracted to.”

Isaac is stunned that is way too honest and he isn’t completely sure if he wants to know where Stiles is going with this, he is feeling slightly panicky and has the hunch that if this continues they can’t go back to the comfortable place between like and dislike they are inhabiting now.

Stiles smiles awkwardly, “Sorry I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, do you want to go back in?”

Isaac nods and follows Stiles back to the party and loud music, he has no desire to be in this crammed room, but at least it stops him from thinking too much.

\---Stile’s POV---

Stiles is sitting at his desk chair and staring annoyed at his phone, as if Scott’s text would change if he stares hard enough. 

Yes Stiles gets that Scott wants to spend time with Kira, but he really thought that he would get some time with his buddy after Allison before it all started again.

Cinema alone is really not the same and he won’t go with his father, not again. And even if he is on friendlier terms with Derek now he can just imagine the look of disbelieve he would give him if Stiles called him without a life or death threat on his hands.

He could text Isaac.

Stiles looks at his phone questioningly as if it has the answer. He probably shouldn’t but still, they have been friendly with each other, and Isaac seems okay if he isn’t smirking or looking at Stiles as if he is the stupidest person in the room. Okay maybe the smirking is kind of sexy. And that’s why it isn’t a good idea to text Isaac!

Still he doesn’t want to spend his Sunday alone in his room and he really wants to watch the movie, so he just texts a non-committal ‘Wanna go see the new Thor movie at six?’ before he can think too much about it.

And then he stands up to take a shower or maybe make a sandwich, anything to not look at his phone constantly; before he is even out of his room it vibrates.

Isaac’s answer is as short as his text, ‘Sure, meet you 5:45 in front of the cinema.’

Stiles can’t help his smile, he knows this doesn’t mean anything, he knows that Isaac isn’t gay and wouldn’t be interested even if he were, still they are on their way to being friends and that feels good, that feels better than the maybe relationship he had with Ethan. And that is a thought he shouldn’t have. He shakes his head quickly and goes to take a shower, no shame in not wanting to stink for a friend.


	3. Chapter 3

\---Isaac’s POV---

Stiles is standing in front of the cinema hands in his pockets, the nervousness exudes him in waves. He looks kind of cute as he walks up and down biting on his lower lip. No not cute, wrong adjective here! Boys are not meant to be cute, girls are. This is a bad idea, but when Isaac got the message he just couldn’t find any good reason not to go, he wanted to see the movie had even talked with Scott about it and he had already decided to not appear so grumpy anymore. So just turning around and leaving Stiles here isn’t an option unfortunately.

“Hi, hope you didn’t wait long?” It is 5:47 even if Stiles would say yes it would be his own fault.

“Nah, just arrived.” He answers with a charming smile on his lips. Isaac should start bumping his head against the wall if he continues thinking such stupid things.

They buy their tickets in silence and sit down in the cinema; obnoxious advertisements start to play and Stiles hums along almost every jingle. Isaac can’t help but stare at the annoying teen.

Stiles looks up at him suddenly self-aware and blushes, “Sorry! I just, I forget that I do that.”

“So you always do that, even when you are with Scott?”

Stiles looks at him confused, “Yes, why?”

“How does he bear it?” Isaac says before he really thinks, well there goes his resolution to be nicer.

Stiles angrily now, “You didn’t have to come, you know! And just so you know Scott thinks I am a delight.”

“And the reason he isn’t here right now would be…?” Okay this is getting out of hand, just because having Stiles so close by is making his whole body tense, doesn’t mean he has to lash out like that, especially since he knows why Scott isn’t here.

Before Stiles can answer the movie starts, the tension between them is still palpable.  
But thanks to Stiles short attention span and love for Loki, he soon starts to grin, laugh and even talk again.

And Isaac for once doesn’t mind, he can’t help himself but he finds Stiles’s comments quite funny, sometimes he can’t even stop a chuckle from escaping his lips.

“Yeah, sure walk around alone in an abandoned warehouse with a physical anomaly, you know Natalie Portman went to Harvard she would never act so stupid in real life!”

“Oh my god how can someone have so many muscles, I mean that doesn’t even look healthy anymore, not that Henry Cavill’s man-boobs weren’t at least as weird.”

“Loki! He is the best! We all need a movie just with him, he could possess me any day.”

Stiles smiles when they leave the cinema.  
“Well that was great! What did you think?”

“It was good, at least what I could hear over your constant commentary.”

Stiles continues smiling, “Yeah sure, don’t think I couldn’t hear you laugh, you think I am hilarious admit it!”

And Isaac can’t help but smile, “Don’t think too much about yourself, just because some of your references may have been slightly amusing.”

Stiles jumps around and laugh “You think I am funny! Isaac the silent grumpy werewolf thinks I am funny!”

Isaac smiles down at Stiles, “So from all your commentary I got that you prefer Loki?”

“Oh yeah, oh my god who wouldn’t? The movie had way too few scenes with him!”

“Don’t you find him, I don’t know, a bit too pale and scrawny I mean compared to Thor?”

Okay Isaac knows what he is doing right now, but he can’t help himself, he always had a suspicion that Stiles was into Derek, but if he is into Loki then maybe…  
Not that it mattered not that he would want him to be …

Stiles blushes slightly and mumbles, “Nah, you heard my comments I really think that Thor is too much, I mean not bad to look at, just a bit much. Loki has something graceful with his aura of superiority and his smirk.”

Isaac watches Stiles as he talks while staring at his feet. He has heard Stiles complain about his unreadable smirk more than once.

They both start talking at the same time.

Isaac, “Well, I will just …”

Stiles, “Do you want to grab … ”

Stiles laugh awkwardly while stroking his hand through his hair, “I mean yeah it’s late, we should just go home.”

Isaac nods keeping his mouth firmly shut, he knows that it would be a bad idea to go grab something with Stiles, either he would insult him again or he would just get more confused.

\--

Back at Scott’s house, he can’t bring himself to call it home yet, he goes straight to his room and closes the door maybe with a bit too much force. Scott doesn’t seem to care and just walks in.

“How was the movie?”

Isaac just nods his head buried in his pillow, which means Scott probably didn’t see him. He sits up in annoyance, “Fine, not as good as Avengers though.”

“Obviously, no Black Widow and no Captain America!”

Isaac roles his eyes. Loving Captain America, could Scott be more the squeaky-clean hero type. He personally prefers Batman.

“So how did it go with Stiles, you didn’t murder each other that is good I guess.”

Isaac huffs, “What exactly is it you think of me? Do you think I would have gone to the cinema with him if I hated him like you seem to think I do?”

Scott looks at him surprised, “You can’t blame me for thinking that, didn’t seem like you two were friendly with each other in the past.”

“Okay, maybe you are right, but we are good now, we had a good time.”

Scott grins, “That’s great! So we can all hang out together!” with that he finally leaves Isaac alone in his misery.

Because now he wouldn’t have any excuse anymore to avoid Stiles. And the worst part is that he can’t think of any reasons why he would want to at the moment.

\---Stiles’s POV---

Mondays are the worst! Mondays with Math are like torture. Stiles can’t help being grumpy when he arrives at their lunch table, he was late in the morning and didn’t have any breakfast yet and the cafeteria’s offer looks like something already digested. He sits across from Isaac picking on his dry cheese sandwich, the most appetizing thing they had.  
Isaac hands him half of his delicious looking sandwich that Mrs McCall probably provided.  
Stiles looks at it suspiciously.

Isaac, “Eat, you are grumpy when you haven’t eaten enough!”

It seems like the whole table stops speaking and looks at Isaac. Aiden snickers again, Ethan looks a bit pissed, Lydia has a tiny smile on her lips while Scott just looks confused.

“What? I am trying to be nicer, wasn’t I supposed to!”

Stiles realizes how uncomfortable their staring is making Isaac, “Well thank you, it’s great to realize that someone still has manners!”

The chatter continues again and Stiles can’t help shooting suspicious glances at Isaac. He feels that something changed between them, but he isn’t sure what yet.

When he finished the delicious and the dry sandwich, Ethan shoves his bag of crisps at him. He smiles tentatively at Stiles, “I am finished you can have them.”

Stiles smiles back and takes them, from the side he sees that Isaac watched them and looks grumpy now.

Stiles, “We watched the new Thor yesterday, Loki was great again!”

Lydia, “I thought Scott spent his day researching stuff with Kira?” Allison looks a bit put out by that.

Isaac, “He went with me.”

Ethan looks at him suspiciously, “So you and Stiles went to the cinema, just like that?”

Isaac gives him a cold stare back, “We both wanted to see the movie, so why not?”

Ethan, “Well, for one I didn’t think you cared for Stiles.”

Isaac smirks, “I went so that disputes that, and anyway shouldn’t it be more important to you if Stiles cares for me?”

Ethan stares at Isaac angrily, Stiles can feel the start of a fight, when Danny walks by waving at them.

Isaac, “Look who it is, maybe you should stop concerning yourself with Stiles and focus your attention on people you really want.”

Ethan almost growls now and gives Stiles a questioning look.

Stiles whispers, “He asked.”

Thankfully the bell tells them that their lunch break is over and they are all leaving to their respective classes.

\--

The next two days continue similar, there still lingers a weird tension between Ethan and Isaac, but they are at least not fighting. The only big thing that happens is that Ethan and Aiden get accepted into Scott’s pack officially after Stiles tells him that he thinks they can be trusted. To be honest Stiles isn’t completely sure, and he still didn’t get a good read on Aiden, but he doesn’t see a reason for the twins to work against them. And if they are in the pack Scott has a bit of control over them.

Again he is the first at the weekly pack meeting Wednesday afternoon, at least Derek is sitting out in the open tonight. He is sitting on his big couch in front of his newly bought TV.

Stiles just sits down next to him, “So a Supernatural fan are we?” Gazing at the tivoed programme that is playing. Derek looks at him with his dark gaze and continues watching. Stiles tries to keep quiet, but well he is still Stiles.

“So who do you like most, Dean or Sam, I personally think Sam is a bit whiny and Cas is the absolute best!”

“Stiles”

“Ah come on, watching TV while having company is an open invitation to talk about the TV programme!”

Derek switches off the TV.

“I didn’t mean for you to do that, I can admire Dean silently too if I have to.”

Derek gives him his look again, “The twins just arrived and Scott’s car turned the corner.”

Stiles nods, “Okay, Lydia and Allison will be here soon too, Lydia texted me before, so only Peter is missing not that that is anything to bemoan.”

Derek, “He said he would be here.”

A knock saves Stiles from expressing his distaste for the missing werewolf.

Derek opens the door. The twins enter quickly followed by Scott and Isaac.

Ethan smiles at Stiles, “So you are a Cas fan? I have to admit I also loved Gabriel.”

Werewolf hearing is just eerie sometimes, still Stiles says euphorically, “Oh yes, he was amazing! I miss him, his gimmick episodes were great.”

Isaac looks a bit glum next to Scott. Scott just smiles at Stiles, “Look you have a new friend who you can force to watch a whole season in one weekend!”

Stiles is pretty happy that the arrival of the rest of the pack interrupts any answer he should have given. Because he isn’t sure if he is comfortable with being just friends with Ethan yet.

Peter leans like always way too close and sniffs, “Ah the fine odour of you without any overlays!”

Isaac shoves himself between Stiles and Peter looking gloomily at Peter.

Peter just smiles, “Ah come on you can’t deny that he smells better, right this way.”

So close Stiles can see that a little blush creeps up on Isaac.

Derek exhales exhausted, “Well can we start the meeting now.”

Aiden, “I don’t remember you being our Alpha shouldn’t Scott be the one to start it?”

Derek looks at him annoyed.

Scott steps between them and says, “Stop it! No fighting we are all one pack and Derek’s right we should start the meeting. Isaac had a strange experience last night, which we should discuss.”

Peter “I don’t want to hear about any teenage issues that happened to our little pup.”

Scott and Derek growl at Peter together and Stiles stares at him angry.

But instead of again complaining about Peter’s part in the pack Stiles asks Isaac worriedly, “What happened?”

Derek gestures them to sit down, and they all sit in the circle of cushions on the floor, for once Stiles takes place next to Isaac without thinking about it.

Isaac, “It’s not as bad as Scott makes it out to be. There were these weird warriors that just appeared out of the shadow and then I felt unconscious and when I woke up I had this thingy behind my ear.”

Stiles looks at him concerned and touches the mark that Isaac shows them. For a moment he just observes it the wheels in his head turning with questions of why and who. When he realizes that his fingers are still lying in the hair behind Isaac’s ear and that Ethan and Peter are staring at him, he abruptly takes his hand away and says, “Okay let me take a picture so I can research it later.”

He tries to keep his breathing under control, and not for the first time hates the heightened senses of werewolves. He can just hope his fear for Isaac and of being exposed overlays any smell the tingling feeling he got in his fingers might have caused.

He takes a picture with his phone, studying it while the others discuss how these warriors could come in and how Scott didn’t hear a thing.

Stiles says offhandedly still staring at his phone already starting his research, “Isaac said they appeared out of the shadow, so how could he have seen them or heard them if they are one with the shadow?”

Everyone looks at him like he is crazy, Stiles looks up from his phone, “Come on! We have had weirder things happening. Kanima, Darach anyone? For that matter super alpha twins that merge together!”

Isaac snickers slightly and Stiles gives him a grateful look from the side. Their eyes meet and for a moment it seems like time stands still. How can someone’s eyes be so blue and so intense? And Isaac is able to be so still, so concentrated, Stiles always admired him for that. Not that he has problems staying still at the moment; it feels like the air has been knocked out from him.

Peter clears his throat and the mood is gone, Stiles looks back at his phone very intent on not looking up.

Peter, “He is right shadow warriors wouldn’t be the weirdest thing we have ever heard of. Maybe you should ask your dad about them Allison, warriors are probably in his area of expertise.”

Scott nods, “Yes that is a good idea. So anything else to discuss?”

Derek shakes his head in frustration, “Scott, we talked about it, if you accept the twins in your pack you need to redefine pack hierarchy. Or anyway define it since you haven’t done that yet.”

Stiles looks up confused, “Pack hierarchy?”

Isaac, “Just stuff like who is second and third in command.”

Stiles, “Well what is the fuss about that, Derek is the second and you are the third in command isn’t that clear?”

Lydia chuckles lightly at that but doesn’t care to elaborate her amusement. Peter looks also amused. Aiden looks a bit shocked to be honest and Derek slightly pissed. Stiles really doesn’t get their reactions.

Scott, “Well that sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?”

Derek, “Oh my god! If you do what Stiles tells you to do then he is obviously your second in command!”

Stiles and Scott look both stunned at Derek.

Stiles, “But I am human.”

Derek, “And? Hasn’t stopped you before so why should it now?”

Stiles looks at Scott questioningly and Scott grins, “Yes I like that, Stiles can be my second in command, and Derek is my third in command, that is okay with you Isaac isn’t it?”

Isaac just nods.

Stiles whispers to Isaac while the others discuss some arrangements with the twins, “And you are okay with a human being above you in the pack order? I wouldn’t want to, I don’t know step on your tail or something.”

Isaac raises one of his eyebrows, “Step on my tail really? It’s not like it wasn’t obvious before. You are his number one, I get that, and he is right anyway, most of the time you tend to have the better ideas.”

Stiles can’t help but grin proudly.  
When the meeting is finally over Peter slaps him on his back hardly, “I always knew it, you will make a fine wolf one day.”  
Isaac just growls at him and Stiles says with a chilly undertone, “I would be more careful in your position, don’t want to become an omega all of a sudden.”

Isaac turns to him with a slightly concerned look, Stiles just raises his shoulders and they all leave Derek’s apartment.

Scott, “Do you want to come to our place to play a bit?”

Stiles nods happily, and for the first time since this whole werewolf thing started he really feels like he belongs.


	4. Chapter 4

\---Isaac’s POV---

Well this is awkward, not that anyone beside himself seems to realize that. Stiles is clearly comfortable, sitting at the dining table together with Mrs McCall, Scott and himself, and why shouldn’t he, he has probably been here a thousand times. He even got them the extra cutlery when Mrs McCall or Melissa as she always tries to remind him forgot it. Stiles knows where everything is. Isaac doesn’t. It is weird, he knows that they all mean it well with him and still right now sitting surrounded by people he feels very lonely.

When everyone is finally finished with their meal during which Stiles was happily chatting on about nothing, Isaac excuses himself to his room, saying something about being tired. It doesn’t matter if they believe him or not, neither Scott nor his mother ever pressure him to admit if something’s up.

In his room he lets himself fall onto his bed face first. He can hear the door behind him open and can smell Stiles approaching. He grunts into his pillow, yeah, sure why should he leave him in peace, Stiles doesn’t have the tact to leave people just be.

“Isaac? Is everything okay? You know I can just go home if you don’t like me being here. I get that I am probably intruding on your time with the McCalls.”

Isaac buries his face deeper into the pillow. Stiles is such a frustrating person! And why the hell does he show so much empathy? Not that he gets the problem, but he is concerned enough to go after him, to annoy him. Isaac never had someone like that. And again with the stupid thoughts because he for sure doesn’t ‘have’ Stiles, Stiles is just being nice, just being Stiles.

If he stays quiet long enough maybe he will just leave.

He feels his bed dip a bit when Stiles sits down on it, yeah sure, because Stiles will never just go!

“You know you can talk to me about things. I mean I may, probably, not get everything that is going on with you, but I mean we are both in the dead mother’s club, so we have at least that in common.”

Isaac sits up abruptly and stares at Stiles. How can he? Why would he bring that up and why the hell does he care?

“Why do you care?” Isaac almost yells.

Stiles looks a bit taken aback but doesn’t move, “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because I have been nothing but an asshole to you! I am not your friend.”

Stiles swallows hard, “Well, you might not have been the nicest person in the past but you are my friend, no matter what you say. And I don’t know what you are getting at with your yo-yo behaviour but I won’t just leave you, no matter what you do.”

It’s now Isaac’s turns to swallow hard he tries to avoid Stiles sincere gaze, he feels on the brink of crying which is stupid he doesn’t cry in front of other people. He learnt to supress his tears years ago.

“Okay”, is all he can say.

Stiles smiles a bit, “Good, so again, would you prefer me to leave or are you coming to watch the Scott’s epic Call of Duty defeat?”

Isaac huffs, “He has gotten better you know.”

Stiles, “You haven’t seen me play yet, I am like the Jedi master of CoD!”

Isaac, “Ridiculous, flying around a lot and speaking in riddles, yes I think I can see that.”

Stiles laughs really laughs now and Isaac is mesmerised. He did that; for once he is the one that made Stiles laugh. He looks carefree like this; you can’t see the sleeping bags under his eyes or the worry lines that so often crease his forehead. He looks like all seventeen-year-old teens should look.

Stiles, “Okay points for that, now let’s go before Scott either falls asleep or finds a new excuse to go over to Kira.”

Isaac, “Well we better be fast then, he probably already has a horrible plan for that.”

 

\---Stiles’s POV---

Okay he gives up, he is definitely cursed, cursed with being surrounded by beautiful people he can’t touch!

Isaac is just adorable how he launches himself into the game as though he would have a chance against either one of them. Scott and him have played all their lives; they are masters. Not that Isaac didn’t get quite a few points because he distracted Stiles with his immense enthusiasm and glee.

Stiles thought that taking a break and just watching Scott and Isaac play would make his life easier. He was wrong.

Watching Isaac while he moves as if his body could influence his character on the screen is just as enchanting from behind as from the side, and now he doesn’t have a game to distract him.

And Isaac does it again; he jumps up as if that would help his character escape certain decapitation by Scott and Stiles has a full view of his ass. Great, just great. Okay yes the view is really good, but Stiles is way too aware that werewolves can smell emotions and stuff, with a jump of his own he mumbles, “I am getting some chips from the kitchen.”

Putting distance between him and them is a good idea.

In the kitchen he puts the chips into a bowl, Mrs McCall prefers it this way, and then lets himself have a moment to breath and maybe get his thundering heart under control.

He doesn’t really know what happened between having no particular feelings toward the grumpy werewolf that may have always looked like a Greek god, to this, whatever this is. Because he isn’t indifferent towards Isaac anymore, that is for sure!

He stems his arms on the kitchen counter and tries to concentrate on his breathing like he would if he had a panic attack.

“Everything okay? You can play with Scott again, if you are bored from watching us.” Stiles jumps when Isaac suddenly enters.

“Oh my god, do you werewolves have to sneak everywhere!”

Isaac, “Sorry, not that you would have heard me if I weren’t quiet by nature.”

Stiles annoyed, “And what does that mean now?! Do you want to say that my hearing isn’t good? Because I have excellent hearing only because all you stupid werewolves have unfairly heightened senses, doesn’t mean the rest of us isn’t capable of anything!”

Oh this is so much easier, being mad at Isaac feels weirdly relaxing.

And Isaac is getting equally angry now, “What the hell! I just came here to ask if everything is alright and you jump like I want to hurt you or something!”

“Well it hasn’t been that long since you wanted to hurt me!”

Isaac’s eyes suddenly flash yellow and he enters Stiles’s personal space. Way too close for comfort he whispers almost inaudible but clearly with compressed anger, “I never would have hurt you!”

Their faces are only centimetres away and this is not what Stiles planned when he was escaping his strange feelings to the kitchen.

His heart is racing, only partly in fear.

“Ahem, well, I didn’t mean … you threatened me like everyone else plenty enough, you wanted to kill Lydia! You can’t blame me for not knowing that.”

Isaac still holding eye contact, his breath caressing Stiles’s cheek, “You thought I was a murderer at one point and you blame me for threatening you?”

Stiles tries to concentrate on neither looking at Isaac’s lips nor licking his own nor thinking too much about their closeness, which means he doesn’t have any mental capacity left to answer the question, “Ahem, yeah, sure, I mean what was the question again?”

Isaac leans just a bit closer a smirk playing on his face, “But then me threatening you isn’t your real problem here now is it?”

Stiles decides for once not to speak. He is pretty sure that he wouldn’t get anything out in a dignifying voice. He can smell Isaac now, even without werewolf sense that is how close they are, he smells of aftershave, woods and something Stiles associates with a comfortable old well-lived-in room. He knows that he doesn’t have to answer the question anyway; there is no way that Isaac can’t smell his arousal by now.

And now his control is slipping because for being Stiles he has stood still for longer than usual. He licks his lips unconsciously, he realizes what he is doing when Isaac’s eyes shoot to his lips and he freezes in the movement, his tongue half out.

And faster than Stiles can even comprehend Isaac is out of his personal space and on the other side of the kitchen, breathing hard and looking like he has seen a ghost.  
Stiles clears his throat to get himself back under control and then asks almost without a waver in his voice, “What was that?”

Isaac looks at Stiles like he is the most frightening thing he has ever seen, “Nothing! Nothing, I have no clue what you are talking about, let’s go back.” And with that Isaac is out of the kitchen, leaving a confused Stiles behind.

Okay maybe he made an ass out of himself with his obvious attraction to Isaac, but the other teen didn’t react like he was disgusted or anything either. But it couldn’t be mutual, could it?

Slowly Stiles walks back into the living room, Isaac clearly avoiding his gaze playing with the controller, while Scott has fallen asleep on the couch.

“Well if Scott’s out I will just go home now.”

Isaac nods, “Yeah, I’ll tell Scott bye from you.”

Stiles can’t leave like that; they can’t even look at each other for god’s sake!

“You mean you will tell him if he ever wakes up from his fairy-tale sleep. I never met anyone who is so hard to wake up, werewolf or not.”

Isaac chuckles slightly, “Yeah you are right, he is like a stone when he falls asleep.”

Stiles smiles and on his way out just whispers loud enough for a werewolf to hear, “Bye Isaac, sleep well.”

 

\---Isaac’s POV---

He doesn’t want to go to school! He is not sure that he ever had so little ambition to enter the building in front of him. When he lived with his father school was escape, maybe not fun, but none-the-less a sanctuary, when he became a werewolf it felt a bit redundant to come here but still nice with all his new found powers, and now that he has friends it sometimes is really nice to go. But today, he would give anything to just be able to turn and not go, but Mrs McCall made it pretty clear that that wasn’t an option.  
He has no clue what happened yesterday. He thought about it a lot, still he can’t come up for a sane reasoning for his behaviour.

Strangely enough he and Stiles get through the whole day including lunch without really talking to each other. Stiles gives him a few small smiles that aren’t any more meaningful than before, and Isaac just nods in return. So they are good and nothing has changed, Isaac is relieved.

The only thing that is left to get through is Lacrosse, but that’s Isaac’s favourite part of the day anyway. 

Chatting with Scott about nothing important he enters the locker room and quickly realizes that getting through Lacrosse might not be as easy as it usually is. Stiles is standing in front of his locker which is located between Isaac’s and Scott’s and struggling to get out of his shirt. And it really gets obvious that his shirt is too big when it reveals his slim slightly toned body. Isaac has seen him before, he has realized before that Stiles doesn’t dress in his correct size. But today it is different. He has no clue why but suddenly he has an unmatched fascination for this naked torso.

Scott claps him on the shoulder “Hey, everything okay, you look like you have seen a ghost.”

That makes Stiles look up, he smiles tentatively at Isaac, when he suddenly blushes probably realizing that he is half naked. He scrambles to get his Lacrosse shirt out. And Isaac just follows Scott to their lockers and wills himself not to blush or show any reaction at all.

Before Stiles can put his shirt on a half naked Ethan appears and claps him on the shoulder, “How did you do on your History test?”

Stiles looks perplexed at Ethan and Isaac can see how the other teen is distracted by Ethan’s muscular body for a moment, “Ahem good, I think, I mean it wasn’t too hard so...”  
Ethan cocks an eyebrow in amusement, “Not too hard? He wanted us to detail the alliances that let to World War I!”

Stiles shrugs his shoulders and finally puts on his Lacrosse shirt, “If you lay it all out on a map in your mind it isn’t too hard, most of them developed by vicinity, and the few that didn’t were mainly German colonies so we learnt about them already when we had the test about colonialism.”

Isaac can’t help but chuckle slightly which gets him Ethan’s and Stiles’s attention, “Sorry didn’t mean to interrupt, but how could you remember anything from that test, we had that during the Kanima crisis.”

Stiles, “It was interesting! And I mean I kind of like learning about all these different countries and imagining travelling there sometime. Like visiting Indian temples or walking along the Nile.”

Isaac looks at Stiles with fascination, just to check why he is still there he looks at Ethan and sees that he has a slight expression of wonder on his face, moments ago he probably had the same expression on his own. Great.

Faster than ever Isaac dresses in his sports gear and slams his locker shut before stomping outside, ignoring the inquisitive looks he gets from Stiles and Scott.

The training was mostly fine, with the exception of his run in with Ethan when they tackled each other and neither was willing to move an inch until the coach blew in his whistle right next to their ears. Well Coach Finstock being pissed wasn’t anything new. He avoided Stiles completely during the training, because if he didn’t want one thing to happen then it was him having any form of body contact with Stiles.

The almost contact the day before had been enough, Stiles’s smell at the almost contact had been enough, the images his minds provided him with since then are enough!

Trying to avoid the awkward locker room situation Isaac runs a few extra rounds until he is sure that everyone should be gone, Scott already said that he would leave with Kira.

Unfortunately like always Stiles doesn’t do the expected, no he seems to have been waiting up for Isaac, freshly showered but still smelling wrong. Isaac frowns and moves closer to the other boy sitting on the bench in front of his locker. He growls slightly when he realizes that Stiles smells a bit like Ethan again.

Stiles looking up from the book he was reading, “Thought you might want a ride.”

Oh fuck him, why does he have to be so nice? Isaac should have never stopped being horrible to him.

Isaac, “Don’t worry wouldn’t want you to wait up. I really need a shower.”

And with that he just strips, to emphasize his point not to get back for some earlier half nakedness.

Stiles stares at him for a moment and can’t keep his tongue from licking his lips again before he averts his gaze and stutters, “No problem, I can wait a bit, have to read this stupid book for English anyway.”

With that he waves ‘Of Mice and Men’ in front of his face.

Isaac just ignores him at least he hopes he appears that way, he has never been so fast at taking a shower or been so willing to take it ice cold. The image of Stiles sitting close by won’t stop springing up on him.

Quickly dressed and everything packed he says calmly to the still reading Stiles, “Ready?”

Stiles jerks up, “Yes, sure, let’s hit the road.”

Isaac rolls his eyes, “You are just driving me home we won’t take a cross-country tour.”

Stiles gets a far away look all of a sudden while walking alongside Isaac to his jeep, “But wouldn’t that be great, just driving across the country, stopping wherever we wanted to.”

They settle into the jeep and Stiles strokes the steering wheel carefully, “But you wouldn’t make it, would you? Poor baby.”

Isaac has no idea how to react to this new absurdity, Stiles is just so … Stiles sometimes.

“So did you get a bit of reading done while you were waiting?”

Stiles looks at Isaac from the side while concentrating on the road ahead, “Yeah I am not sure about the book, the relationship of the main characters seems a bit unequal.”

Isaac snorts, “A bit? Really? You are at the beginning aren’t you? Ah you have no idea that was one of the few books that really made me … doesn’t matter.”

Stiles, “What did it make you? I didn’t know you read it.”

Isaac, “What surprised I can read?”

Stiles, “Don’t be stupid, I know you can read, you answer my texts often enough, just that you would do it voluntarily surprises me.”

Isaac, “I had to read it for class same as you, doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. It’s a good book.”

Stiles, “Really? I don’t know. I probably am just not much into this farmers thing.”

Isaac huffs annoyed, “That is not what the book is about! Keep reading and when you finish it we will talk again.”

Stiles smiles suddenly, “Yes that sounds good.”

In accord to this awkward day, Isaac doesn’t feel the anticipated relief when they arrive at the McCall’s house.

Stiles strokes his neck nervously, “Well guess I see you tomorrow then.”

Isaac shoots him a look while leaving, “Obviously!”

Before he closes the door he murmurs a low, “Thanks for the ride.”


	5. Chapter 5

\---Stiles’s POV---

It is 3 am on a Saturday and in Stiles’s opinion the perfect time to begin the weekend with a little snack. Getting out the cookies he hides from his father he sits down on the kitchen counter, naturally his father comes home right then. Sometimes Stiles thinks that he has a hidden sense for unhealthy food being eaten in his house.

His father grins when he sees the cookies and sits down across from him with an expectant expression on his face.

Stiles hands him two cookies, “This is an exception!”

His father happily nibbles on one of them, “Sure, so what keeps you up so late?”

Stiles shrugs, “Nothing in particular.”

“So it has nothing to do with the boy that you were dating, but maybe not dating anymore?”

Stiles looks up questioningly when he remembers his dilemma with Ethan just a week earlier, “Ah that, no it’s not about that, I told him how I felt and he was fine with it.”

His father nods, “Well that is good, so who is this existential crisis about then?”

Stiles, “It’s not about… Sometimes life with werewolves is just complicated, I mean they can be grumpy one moment, ignore you the next or act like they really care the third time. I am not sure I can keep up sometimes.”

His father looks at him carefully, “That doesn’t sound like a problem particular to werewolves.”

Stiles shakes his head, “No it’s not like that it’s just confusing, it is not like I …” Stiles looks down at the empty cookie package in his hands blushing. He doesn’t want to say that it is not like he cares for Isaac in that way, he doesn’t want to think of Isaac in that column of people. Isaac is his friend, his possibly very good friend. He isn’t allowed to think of him as anything more, his thoughts have maybe gone a bit haywire in the last days. But yesterday at school showed him again that the most he can hope for with Isaac is friendship and not getting completely ignored like the day before. And he shouldn’t even think of it in terms of hope, maybe he should give this Ethan thing another chance because he can’t start crushing on straight people, he hurt enough with his thing with Lydia he won’t do that again!

“You know I can see the wheels turning in your head.”

Stiles, “Ah it’s nothing just stupid werewolf problems.”

“I would have gone with teenage problems, I still don’t think that the werewolf thing has anything to do with it, and anyway if this problem keeps you up at night it isn’t stupid.”

Stiles just smiles at his father, he really lucked out in that department and that makes him think of Isaac again, who had such a horrible father, who had no one who really cared for him for way too long, who still walks around the McCall house like he is a guest there.

“And what did you get so sad about now all of a sudden kiddo?”

“It’s just that I sometimes forget how lucky I am to have you.”

His father hugs him fiercely; when he releases him he says, “It’s great that you feel that way, but we both know that you have been through your fair share of horrible stuff, you don’t need to feel like you have to be there for everyone else, it is okay to let people take care of you from time to time.”

Stiles is opening his mouth to counter his father when he interrupts him, “No, I know you, I know this whole being second in command thing won’t make your habit of taking care of everyone but yourself any better so I just want you to remember that it isn’t weak but brave to ask for help.”

Stiles nods carefully knowing when his father isn’t open for discussion and leaves with a last hug to go back to bed. But his father doesn’t really understand the position he is in, because he is the weak human in a pack of werewolves and neither Allison nor Lydia are in the same position as him. Both are terrifying in their own way, one of them a supernatural being, the other freaking Katniss Everdeen. He has to ask for help way too often already, they have to safe him from physical harm like every other day, he won’t start asking for help because of stupid nightmares or teenage angst, they all have enough on their plate as it is.

\--

Since he spent the whole of Saturday thinking way too much about a certain grumpy pup Stiles decides to do something proactive against his weird feelings for once. He calls Scott and pulls the ‘you owe me’ card to get him to go with him to Jungle. It wasn’t that hard really since Kira has a family thing planned.

Stiles really tries to dress himself a bit better, but after the third pair of uncomfortable jeans he gives up and decides to just go in his normal clothes. If who-ever he meets doesn’t like him that way then he isn’t worth the effort anyway, that is what he will continue telling himself.

The drive to the club is fun, he and Scott didn’t spend any alone time together in a while.  
Scott, “So when you said Q was hot when we watched Skyfall you really meant he was hot.”

Stiles grins, “Well it doesn’t seem like I hid my sexual identity crisis very well.”

Scott in all earnest now, “You know that you never have to hide anything from me! I don’t care who you are attracted to.”

Stiles smiles touched at Scott and then mumbles, “I am pretty sure you would care about some people.”

Scott frowns, “Who do you mean?”

Stiles shakes his head, “Nah, no one.”

Thankfully they arrive at the club at that moment.

\--

It is a bit stuffy in there, and Stiles feels out of place. He isn’t as confident as the people here; he would never show his body or dance like that. And it seems as if Scott is exactly what they like not Stiles the scrawny kid with too many layers.

He decides that he has had enough when suddenly a smiling face emerges from the masses and he can’t help smiling back. Ethan comes and puts his arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner.

“So how do you like it here, first time isn’t it?”

Stiles shakes his head feeling much better now that he at least got the attention of one very good looking male, “Nah not the first time, but the last time we were on the hunt for the Kanima so it wasn’t really for fun.”

Ethan chuckles, “Yes that is exactly why you would visit a gay club for the first time to get the big bad monster.”

Stiles, “Ah and there I thought werewolves were meant to be the big bad monster.”

Ethan still grinning, “Well didn’t say that your second time isn’t like your first.”

Stiles bites his lower lip, “I thought… I thought you were still into Danny.”

Ethan, “I am not saying that I am completely over him, but I don’t need to be to appreciate you, and as I am getting to know you more I am starting to really like you. And my brother might not agree but I think it is really cool that you as a human can hold the position of second in command in a werewolf pack. That says a lot about you.”

Stiles, “Thanks but you don’t have to be nice to me you know, you are in the pack now, and we are surrounded by good looking guys, you can go and find someone who is more on your scale.”

Ethan suddenly stands right in front of Stiles and looks him in the eye, a bit baffled he says, “What do you think I am doing here? I would never flirt with you just to get some kind of favour, I am not an asshole and I am not my brother. I am here right next to you because you intrigue me way more than every other guy in here.”

Stiles smiles, this is nice, there is no way he can deny that this attention unfiltered and without mixed signals he gets from Ethan isn’t nice.

Scott comes up to him from the side, smiles at Ethan and says, “Well I have now explained to five different guys that I am not interested, one of them looked old enough to be my dad, I think I am ready to go home.”

Stiles nods, “Sure, go ahead I’ll be right with you.”

Scott shoots a look between Ethan and him and leaves.

Stiles, “Thank you, that was really nice of you to say.”

Ethan suddenly comes closer and whispers so that Stiles can feel his breath on his lips, “Nice isn’t the word I would use.”

Stiles looks him straight in the eye carefully controlling his breathing. He really isn’t sure if he wants these lips right in front of him to come closer or not.

Ethan moves just an inch closer so that now his lips move slightly against Stiles’s when he speaks, “I won’t stop flirting with you until you tell me to.”

Stiles feels suddenly very hot, hotter than when Ethan kissed him, and he realizes that is because this time he feels like he has options and isn’t only guessing what the hell is going on.

With a smile Ethan backs up and says, “Well see you Monday.”

Stiles smiles back, “Yes, see you Monday.”

\--

Stiles can’t help but smile when he is back with Scott in the car.

Scott, “So Ethan again?”

Stiles, “Honestly, I have no clue.”

Scott, “He seems okay. Your first male crush could have been someone worse.”

Stiles swallows a bit but doesn’t feel in the mood to correct his best friend.

Scott, “So do you want to sleep over? Your father has a nightshift hasn’t he?”

Stiles wants to open his mouth but closes it before his question can escape his lips, because he is pretty sure Scott would find it weird if he asked if Isaac is there, and naturally Isaac will be there. Anyway it shouldn’t matter. But Stiles had a good night, and he somehow feels as if a meeting with Isaac could ruin that again. But it has been way too long since he and Scott spent the whole night together and Stiles knows that Scott wants to discuss this whole Kira thing in all its finer details with him.

“Yeah, okay, sure, why not.” Maybe a bit too many affirmations but thankfully Scott doesn’t realize such things.

\--

And for the first half hour it isn’t weird, because Isaac isn’t showing up, they just sit on Scott’s bed and Stiles listens to him talk about his ‘it’s really not like that’ crush on Kira.

It reminds him of Scott talking about Allison but it is also weirdly different, Scott doesn’t seem to has this romantic over the top idea about love when he talks about Kira, but he seems absolutely smitten none the less even if he doesn’t realize it yet.

Scott suddenly says a bit louder, “You can come in Isaac, you know.”

Isaac pops his head in cautiously and says, “I don’t want to intrude I just heard you talking about Kira for half an hour straight and thought maybe Stiles wanted to talk about something else.”

Stiles smiles at Isaac, “Nah it’s fine he can go for another hour before I smack him with a pillow.”

Scott, “Hey I didn’t only talk about Kira it was also about Sushi and this weird green goo they had with it.”

Stiles and Isaac say at them same moment, “Wasabi.”

Scott waves his hand, “Yes that, anyway, come on Isaac just sit down. And even if I was going on about her, which I wasn’t I got talked up by at least eight different guys tonight just so Stiles could flirt with Ethan which he could have done without my help.”

Stiles shakes his head a bit at his friend, “You know the number of guys that wanted you grows with every time you tell that story.”

Stiles looks over to Isaac and sees that he looks agitated.

Scott, “How about popcorn I think we still have some, I will get us some.”

Stiles is sure that he just doesn’t want them to tease him about Kira anymore. Scott leaves the room and Stiles is just about to say something about that to Isaac when he sees that the other teen came a lot closer.

“So you and Ethan again?”

Stiles, “Well probably not, but I don’t know, he was really nice tonight.”

Isaac sniffing the air around him and glaring at his lips, “Doesn’t smell like he was only nice.”

Stiles touches his lips embarrassed and he doesn’t know why he feels the need to explain, “We didn’t kiss! He just… well he may have flirted with me a bit.”

“And you liked it.”

“Yes! Why shouldn’t I, I was in a room full of attractive guys with way too few clothes on and my straight best friend got talked up and I didn’t. So yes it was great that a hot, nice guy showed me attention and even said that he found me intriguing.”

Isaac huffs in annoyance, “You are stupid! And probably blind. And anyway saying you are intriguing what exactly does that mean? You are one of the most annoying, puzzling and simultaneously nice people I have ever met, naturally you are ‘intriguing’.”

Stiles just stares at him his mouth hanging open a bit. Isaac did not just say that, this evening was meant to clear his feelings up and not stir them in a dangerous direction.


	6. Chapter 6

\---Isaac’s POV---

No, no, no! He didn’t just say that; no he didn’t just say he found Stiles intriguing! But the shocked expression on Stiles’s face clearly states that he did.

Thankfully Scott arrives with the popcorn and Isaac just moves so that he has the biggest possible distance between him and Stiles.

And now Scott is looking at them weirdly, if Scott starts to think they are acting suspicious then they are really doomed. Scott is the oblivious one he shouldn’t get anything, not that there is anything to get.

Isaac, “So you wanted to talk about Kira?”

Stiles huffs a bit trying to hide his amusement, Isaac frowns at him.

Scott looks confused, “I thought you didn’t want me to talk about her anymore?”

Isaac stays silent sitting there annoyed. They have to talk about something; they can’t just spend their time sitting on a too small bed where Isaac has to be careful not to stretch his legs so he won’t touch Stiles. And watching Stiles nibbling on popcorn is also getting old pretty fast. Not that he is watching the other teen per se, he just happens to be in his line of vision.

Scott, “Anyway you were right we probably talked about that enough already, so what about you, do you have an interest in anyone at the moment. I mean it doesn’t seem like you spend so much time with Allison anymore. Thank god by the way!”

Isaac can see that Stiles is now very content with watching his hands and not looking up and he won’t even start interpreting this, because it doesn’t matter.

Isaac, “Nah no one in particular, the new girl in chemistry, the blonde one, is hot but we haven’t talked yet. And just so I know if I were with Allison you would be … ?”

Scott, “Annoyed, but okay with it in the end, you don’t choose who you fall for, and I wouldn’t come between you two. But there is nothing going on or is there? I would prefer it if you told me honestly.”

Isaac can’t help but look at Stiles again just to see what he thinks about all this, but Stiles seems for once very happy to be quiet and study his feet, but Isaac didn’t miss that his heart sped up a notch when he mentioned the blonde girl, or when Scott mentioned Allison. Not that that means anything!

Isaac, “No, nothing going on there, I might have had a bit of a crush on her, but I don’t know, it just vanished.”

Stiles looks up and asks curiously, “How?”

Isaac shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know, how did your crush on Lydia vanish?”

Stiles, “Oh that didn’t just vanish it kind of ebbed down. And then I realized that I probably never was into her in a realistic way, that I would have had no idea what to do if we would have gotten together. But then I never had a chance with her, isn’t it different if you have a chance with someone?”

Isaac shrugs again, “I don’t know maybe it just wasn’t really there from the beginning and I just admired her for her strength and also liked that I could help her when she had her hallucinations. It is nice to be needed sometimes.”

Stiles suddenly twitches weirdly, “Yes but it isn’t nice to always need help.”

Isaac looks at Stiles confused, when Scott asks, “What do you mean?”

Stiles, “Nothing, let’s sleep, I am tired.”

Isaac can clearly hear that that’s a lie, and he has the strong need to find out what it’s about, and that is exactly why he shouldn’t have come in Scott’s room in the first place.

Isaac, “Yeah I am tired too, good night.”  
And he leaves, definitely not thinking about the slightly down look Stiles had on his face when he lied to them.

 

\---Stiles’s POV---

Isaac isn’t there for breakfast and Stiles is glad that he isn’t. He isn’t a bit bumped out about it, no sir! And it also doesn’t faze him at all when Mrs McCall says that he went to Allison’s, he couldn’t care less.

Scott, “Are you okay, you seem grumpy today?”

Stiles, “What, why? Everything’s perfect!”

Scott, “Okay if you say so, wanna play some CoD before you get home?”

Stiles, “Nah, I want to get some research done, just because it’s so calm doesn’t mean we should forget the Oni thingies.”

Scott, “Yeah sure, I think that was why Isaac went to Allison’s anyway, I heard them talk on the phone earlier.”

Stiles, “Oh, well okay yeah then I can probably stay for one round of CoD.”

Three hours, quite a few grand battles later, they sit on the floor resting their backs on the couch.

Scott suddenly gets his puppy look and Stiles already fears what is coming next, “You know I woke up twice because you had some horrible nightmares tonight.”

Stiles doesn’t look at his best friend, he hoped that Scott’s extremely deep sleep would prevent him from hearing anything, it’s not like this night was really bad, it was way better than most.

Scott, “I mean are you okay? You said you can read again and that you don’t feel like you don’t know what’s real anymore, so you are better?”

Stiles flails with his arms a bit, “Sure I am better, don’t worry Scotty boy, I can read perfectly well, I know what reality is and what not, maybe I have a few nightmares now and then, but who hasn’t?”

He is pretty sure that he didn’t tell a straight lie so Scott hopefully doesn’t pick anything up.

Scott a bit relieved, “You are sure? Because if you don’t feel well you can tell me!”

Stiles smiles at his friend and gives him a hug while saying, “Don’t worry I know.”

And Isaac uses that moment to enter the house.

Stiles just wants to ask him how the visit went when he gets irritated by Isaac’s pissed look at Scott. Scott doesn’t seem to realize it though and asks, “So how did it go?”

Isaac takes his jacket off and Stiles sees that he is wearing a suit. For a moment his thoughts go blank, he can just stare at this model perfect Greek god that he knows as Isaac the sneering werewolf.

Isaac looks back at him and suddenly a smirk appears on his face. Oh stupid werewolf! Proud that he can take Stiles’s breath away when he looks like that. But Stiles won’t be embarrassed for it this time because he is sure that no one walks this earth that wouldn’t be affected by this version of Isaac!

Isaac sits down on the couch so they have to look up and says, “Well, first of all we can’t kill them and this tattoo.” He touches the tattoo behind his ear, “Means something like self, it says that I am not possessed. That is what these warriors are searching for some kind of evil spirit that possessed someone and that is the person they want to kill. The rest of us should be safe.”

Stiles now with a new puzzle at hand finally distracted by Isaac’s outfit, “Should be?”

Isaac, “Yeah we just have to avoid getting in between them and whoever they want to test.”

Scott smiles, “That sounds great for once! So they are doing all the work and we can just stand by and let them get it done.”

Stiles rolls his eyes, “It also means that we have a dark spirit somewhere in our midst. And I am also not sure if we should just let someone get killed for being possessed.”

Isaac shrugs his shoulders, “Why not? Less work for us.”

Scott looks contemplative.

Stiles, “Oh my god! What is it with this pack and its short memory span! Kanima anyone? We are here to save people and if we can save an asshole like Jackson then we can also try to safe whoever it is this time.”

Scott doubtful, “I don’t know, we really have no clue about what this thing is or who and the shadow warriors sound pretty impressive, they probably know what they are doing.”

Stiles scowling at his best friend, “Scott! You are the one who always wants to save everyone, just think what fucking Captain America would do.”

Scott looks tired suddenly, “Yes, I know you are right! Fuck it I was just getting comfortable with the thought that we could have a break for once!”

Stiles lays his hand comforting on Scott’s shoulder, “I know, and for now we can’t do a lot anyway, I will just continue my research and you can talk with Kira about it, since the thing she is seems to come from the same mythological background. Which means you have a good reason to spend some more time with her.”

Scott smiles broadly now, “You are right! Perfect plan like always Stiles!”

Isaac slightly annoyed, “Don’t you think that someone else should maybe do the research for once, Stiles shouldn’t have to be the only one to do it all.”

Stiles looks baffled at Isaac, “It’s okay, I don’t mind, I like researching.”

Isaac now really annoyed to Stiles, “And what is with sleeping, don’t you like sleeping too? Or is that something that you don’t fancy anymore with all these nightmares?”

Stiles standing up so he can speak down at Isaac, “What?! I don’t even know … I can handle this! I am perfectly capable of doing a bit of research, a few nightmares aren’t changing that!”

Isaac stands up too, crosses his arms and looks down at him, “A few? And you are sure they are only a few and not so many that you are scared to fall asleep?”

Stiles breathing gets faster now, he is so angry, how does he dare?! They weren’t even friends until a few days ago and now he attempts to meddle with his life. And implies in front of Scott that he isn’t well. Scott, who worries too much anyway.

“You have no clue what you are talking about! And please don’t concern yourself with my life it has nothing to do with yours!”

Isaac huffs, “Sure the well-being of the second in command of my pack shouldn’t concern me the least.”

Stiles flailing, “It shouldn’t! It is my life, my sleep, my nightmares, you don’t need to worry about it one bit!”

Scott who until now was just looking confused between them is standing up, “Isaac, Stiles is right, he will tell us if something’s wrong with him, he can take care of himself.”

Isaac suddenly looks furiously at Scott, Stiles has never seen this look directed at Scott.

Isaac, “What the hell! Don’t you see what he is doing to himself, are you that blind?”

Scott in his alpha voice now, “I stand by what I said! And anyway if you think it is too much for Stiles to research this alone you can just help him.”

Stiles and Isaac are starting to talk simultaneously when Scott interrupts, “Yes I think that is the best solution. You both said that you are friends now, so there is no reason why you can’t work together, or is there?”

Sometimes Scott is pretty good at this alpha thing, and as hard as he tries Stiles can’t come up with a good counter argument.

Isaac seems to be as lost for words.

Scott smiles, “Good then it’s settled, let me just call Kira and inform her of the news.”

Stiles and Isaac stare at each other for a moment.

Isaac clears his throat as Scott passes to get to his room, “Well, we could meet tomorrow after school?”

Stiles nods slowly, he is still trying to process what just happened, “Okay, I should be on my way now.”

Stiles gets his things quickly still not sure what to think and says bye to the werewolves and Mrs McCall.

In his car when he is finally certain that he is out of the werewolves’ earshot he lets out a long groan and a loud “What the hell!” He is pretty sure that the universe hates him. And his intestines seem to fight an epic battle between feelings of anticipation and feelings of utter horror towards his research time with Isaac.


	7. Chapter 7

\---Stiles’s POV---

Monday is weird, this time Isaac isn’t ignoring him, they both talk to each other like it is the normal thing to do, not that it really feels normal. Stiles can see how Isaac tries to hide their few uncomfortable silences from Scott. Thankfully Scott isn’t getting it.

During lunch Ethan is sitting next to him again and they have a really nice chat about Supernatural. Stiles feels way more relaxed around him now that he isn’t in a dating situation with him, he just won’t question why that is the case.

He tries not to interpret the gloomy looks Isaac shoots Ethan. No he doesn’t even think about them.

“So do you want to come over on Tuesday and watch together?”

Stiles doesn’t get right away what Ethan means he was a bit distracted by Scott asking Isaac if the blonde girl that had just walked by was the one Isaac had mentioned. Stiles thinks he has talked to her once, her name is something like Susan or Sue.

Stiles tries to think of an answer for Ethan’s question but Isaac’s nodding and Scott’s grin that never means anything good are not helping his concentration.

“What was the question again something about coming over on Tuesday?”

Ethan smiles, “Yes it was if you want to watch Supernatural together.”

Stiles, “Where exactly do you live anyway? I always imagined everyone of the alpha pack living deep down in the woods, but you don’t really live there, do you?”

Ethan laughs, “No we have a little flat, not far from Derek’s actually.”

“Cool, if you want you could also come over to mine though.”

Aiden sneers, “Afraid that the big bad wolf will eat you if you come home to him?”

Stiles tries to hide his blush, “Nah I was at Derek’s often enough and he is bigger and worse than you two.” He doesn’t add that he trusts Derek contrary to the twins.

Ethan gives his brother an annoyed look and says to Stiles, “It’s fine, I get it, you need a bit more time to fully trust us. Maybe you can come with Scott sometime, if that would be easier and on Tuesday I’ll just come to your place if that still stands. Would be better anyway, no meddling brothers there!”

Stiles nods and smiles at Ethan, talking with him gets easier every day. He knows that he will soon trust the werewolf, and then they could maybe even try the dating thing again.

Isaac interrupts his thoughts, “I should warn you, watching anything with Stiles means having a constant commentary for everything that is going on. You won’t understand a thing that is happening on screen.”

Ethan annoyed to Isaac, “Since when do you care about me enough to warn me about anything?”

Isaac arrogantly, “Just thought you would like to know.”

Ethan, “Sure. Good thing then that I like Stiles’s commentary and am looking forward to having it all for myself for once.”

Stiles is getting why Ethan says that but it is also a bit much, maybe he wants this to go somewhere maybe not, but any way he needs this to go a bit slower.

Isaac growls at Ethan, “If you think we will let you be alone with him then you are sorely mistaken, if the Sheriff won’t be home one of us will be with you!”

Scott might look a bit confused but he backs Isaac none the less, “Yes just for now it might not be such a bad idea to have at least one of us in your vicinity.”

And that makes Stiles angry, yes maybe a moment ago he himself was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of being all alone with Ethan, but that doesn’t mean that he needs their help! He can take care of himself.

Stiles, “I don’t think that will be necessary, Ethan is pack now or have you forgotten?”

Isaac, “That doesn’t mean …”

Stiles interrupts him trying very hard to contain his fury, “No that exactly means what I said it means, I don’t need any of you to hold my hand. Ethan won’t hurt me, and we will watch TV together and that’s that! No objections!”

With that he just stands up and leaves he doesn’t want to talk to Isaac anymore. He is annoyed by how much he wants to baby him, he doesn’t need help god damn it!

 

\---Isaac’s POV---

That didn’t go well, and he was so good at the beginning of the day! He didn’t ignore Stiles, didn’t fight with him, it might have been weird but not obviously so, and then he had to ruin it. He doesn’t even know why, because he remembers a time not long ago when he wasn’t against the twins joining their pack, when he was all for it, when he believed they could be trusted. And now he was acting as if he thought Ethan would murder Stiles if he had a moment alone with him. And no matter how hard he wants to tell himself the contrary he knows that Ethan won’t hurt Stiles at least not physically, that Ethan wants something completely different from Stiles. And Isaac doesn’t know why he cares about that, why the idea of them together on Stiles’s couch watching TV maybe leaning into each other makes him feel like punching people.

At least Stiles is waiting for him next to his car like they discussed. Not that the dark look he shoots Isaac is very welcoming.

Isaac just gets in, the silence is eerie, he has never seen Stiles so quiet.

Isaac, “So, how was English?”

Stiles shoots him a dark look and stays quiet.

Isaac gives up, he can’t do this, “Okay, I am sorry, that is what you want to hear isn’t it?”

Stiles still doesn’t say anything.

Isaac, “Come on! What do you want from me, I can’t do more than say that I am sorry!”

Stiles, “You could start by getting it in your head that I am capable of looking after myself!”

Isaac looks out of the window trying to calm himself, sometimes Stiles is just so full of it, it’s amazing. But he decided that he wouldn’t fight about this anymore so he can’t say what he really thinks.

Isaac, “Well, okay if that is what you want I will keep shut about stuff like that.”

Stiles looks suddenly exhausted, Isaac can see the toll his lack of sleep takes out on him, “I just want you to accept that I am not your responsibility, okay I may have a bit of a tough time right now, but I can handle it, neither you nor Scott need to worry about me.”

Isaac has a lot he would like to say to that but he suppresses it all and says, “Okay.”

Stiles shoots him a surprised look but he also seems to relax visibly.

Isaac can’t understand him, he doesn’t get why Stiles hates it so much when people want to help him. But weirdly enough he also knows that he is now more determined than ever to help Stiles however he can. If he has to do it without it looking like he helps on purpose then so be it.

They stop in Stiles’s driveway and Stiles turns to him looking suspicious, “Don’t think I don’t know you. You are not that easy to convince are you?”

Isaac just shrugs and leaves the car, Stiles can think what he wants he has already decided what he will do.

\--

They settle down in Stiles’s room, Stiles on his bed, Isaac on his desk chair, both with old books that Deaton provided, Stiles also has his laptop next to him.

Isaac really tries to concentrate on the book in front of him and his phone with which he translates the foreign words but it is hard with Stiles so close by. Stiles, who seems to look at three things simultaneously and can’t sit still for a minute, cursing at his laptop if it doesn’t give him an answer.

Isaac will never understand how someone can move so much.

After an hour and a half Isaac only found out that the first six pages of the book in his hand don’t seem to have any information about the creatures they are looking for, not that he can be sure, as Stiles stated earlier they don’t even know the name of the evil spirit so they could easily overlook something important. Isaac doesn’t really see the reasoning behind researching, but he doesn’t want to leave Stiles alone with all this crap so he keeps his mouth shut.

Stiles suddenly throws one of the books that surround him to the ground, “I think I have had enough for now, old Latin and old Japanese are really a shitty combination. How about something to eat?”

Isaac nods, he just realized that Stiles probably gave him the easiest book he had, his was in ordinary stupid Latin. He feels a bit shit that he didn’t get very far with it.

Isaac follows Stiles to the kitchen.

Stiles, “So how is it going on your end?”

Isaac slightly ashamed, “Six pages that mention nothing about the things we know.”  
Stiles smiles at him, “Six pages, that is good! I always hated Latin but then I started researching stuff in Greek and now with Old Japanese I can’t say that Latin was the worst.”

Isaac, “I have to admit I didn’t know how much work this researching stuff was I thought you just enter stuff in Google and then you try to find the most proper site with good information. I am sorry that I am no good at it.”

Stiles chuckling, “Ah don’t worry I know that everyone thinks that that is what I do. And sometimes it is, but to be honest the least proper sites, the ones that seem like a six year old made them are often the ones with the best information. Sometimes it seems as if everyone in the supernatural world has as much computer knowledge as Derek. And you are doing fine! You didn’t fall asleep after ten minutes that’s better than Scott.”

Isaac cocks his eyebrow, “Scott fell asleep?”

Stiles smiling fondly, “Yes, it had been a pretty hard week, and that is just not his thing, I get it, I let him sleep and woke him when I found what we were searching for.”

Isaac knows he shouldn’t say anything but he can’t help himself, “Don’t you think that it is a bit unfair that you do all the hard work?”

Stiles doesn’t look mad this time, “Come on it’s not like that, you fight like, all the time, you get hurt really bad, don’t think I didn’t see what the alphas did to you, you all work hard enough. I just do my part.”

Isaac, “But…”

Stiles interrupts him, “How about some grilled cheese?”

Isaac lets it go for now, “You don’t have to make me anything.”

Stiles, “And what host would I be if I didn’t, so grilled cheese yes or no? I could order something if you would prefer Chinese.”

Isaac, “Grilled cheese is okay, but you really don’t have to, I know you were forced to spend time with me.”

Stiles prepares the bread and puts it in the oven, gesturing Isaac to just sit down. When he is finished he sits across from Isaac and looks at him with a serious look on his face, “Listen, I don’t need to be forced to spend time with you. Yes okay this time it happened because you like to meddle, but if you would have just asked if you could help me or come over I would have always said yes. We may have some difficulties sometimes but I like you, I like spending time with you. I don’t know why but despite the fact that you sometimes unnerve me beyond reason you have a grounding effect on me.”

Isaac has no clue how to take this, no one has ever explained to him in so many words why they liked him. Erika once said, ‘Don’t be daft, of course I like you!’ and Scott told him that he likes having him as a friend, but no one ever did it like this.

Isaac, “Ahem okay.”

Stiles smiles at him, “You know you don’t need to be so surprised, you are great and everyone in the pack likes you, the twins will also get there, and you could be a bit easier on Ethan, but anyway you don’t have to prove yourself and especially with Scott and Mrs McCall you really don’t have to think so much.”

And what exactly is Stiles insinuating with this? Isaac hadn’t realized that Stiles might have recognized that he doesn’t let his guard down at the McCall’s.

Isaac, “What do you mean? I am perfectly comfortable with everyone!”

Stiles, “Sorry I didn’t mean to step on your toes, and I get that it must be hard to start being part of a new family especially after… I just wanted to let you know that they appreciate you exactly as you are and that you can relax and start seeing the McCall’s as your home.”

Isaac, “And who is the one meddling know? You don’t know anything, I am perfectly fine at the McCall’s.”

Stiles shakes his head a bit, “Put don’t you see, it’s not the McCall’s for you, at least it shouldn’t be, it is your home!”

Isaac, “Home? And what exactly is that, why should that be something I want, home hasn’t been something good for a long time so why should I try to find one now?”

Stiles looks at him sadly, but not in the normal pitying way that Isaac hates so much it seems more like a ‘I understand you’ look, but how could Stiles understand him?

Stiles, “Before my mother died, the long period of time she spent dying, I didn’t like home, first it was the place where my mother got sicker every day, then I spent most of my time in the hospital and after my mother died every little place in this house reminded me of the fact that I lost her. The place you are sitting at is where she always sat and asked me about my day, the oven in which our grilled cheese is probably burning right now, is the place she baked my birthday cakes, and so on and so forth.” Stiles gets up and gets the slightly too brown grilled cheeses.

When he sits down again he just speaks on, “I know I will never be able to imagine how your life was, the one time Gerard kicked the shit out of me was enough for me, but I know how it is to not feel at home in your home, it took me and my father a long time to get the feeling of home back, but we also had to give it a chance, despite the fact that my mother’s funeral was one shitty day, I really think that it helped us excepting that we would start a different part of our lives now, maybe you need something like that too?”

Isaac just stares at Stiles who is now devouring his grilled cheese. So Isaac eats his too, not that he even realizes that he does, his mind is blank.

When they are finished Stiles takes the plates to the sink and Isaac follows him, he stands a bit closer than normal while Stiles’s does the washing up, Stiles’s smell is comforting, the thought that it might be tainted by Ethan soon again makes him angry. He knows he shouldn’t even feel or think this, but he wants to be the only one that is close to Stiles, he wants to have this precious, breakable person to himself.

Stiles just finished drying and now stands exactly in front of Isaac looking up and smiling hesitantly, “Sorry that I got so heavy before, but we can continue researching now and then maybe a dvd?”

Isaac nods, but when Stiles tries to step away he grabs his arm lightly. Stiles looks confused at him. Isaac licks his lips nervously he wants to say something about how much what Stiles just shared means to him. But Stiles eyes follow his tongue for a moment and that messes with Isaac’s brain again.

Isaac, “I just wanted to say … ahem thank you. Yes thank you for being so open, you didn’t have to be.”

Isaac is all to aware that his hand is still on Stiles’s upper arm, because of reasons beyond his scope he doesn’t want to take it away. He also hears and almost feels that Stiles heart is racing despite the fact that he seems calm on the outside. For a moment Isaac lets his thoughts loose and lets himself enjoy how close they are standing and how nice it feels to have Stiles all to himself.

Stiles, “Yeah, sure, why not, don’t worry about it.”

Isaac smiling, “That are a lot of affirmations don’t you think?”

Stiles blushes heavily now, his heart speeds up a notch and he starts biting his lips as if to control himself from doing something.

And that’s enough to break Isaac’s weird trance, he lets go of Stiles and starts towards the stairs, “We should continue our research if we want to get anything done today.”


	8. Chapter 8

\---Stiles’s POV---

Stiles can still feel Isaac’s hand on his arm it happened almost four hours ago, but he still has to actively keep himself from touching the place Isaac held him.

They finally decided to let research be an hour ago, and started watching Avengers, a movie Isaac obviously loves, in the living room. Isaac is totally engaged watching it, which means Stiles can lean back and think. He has no clue why Isaac acts the way he does, he is pretty sure that it isn’t because of any romantic feelings, but no matter why, he isn’t helping Stiles’s turmoil.

Because with every moment that he sits next to Isaac watches his face contort in amusement he grows fonder of the other teen. He can’t deny anymore that he likes Isaac on a different level than Scott. He loves Scott with all his heart but he never had to restrain himself so hard to not move closer and not touch with him.

Isaac, “I love Hulk!”

Stiles, “Yes he is great”, he has no idea at which point in the movie they are he hasn’t looked at the screen in a while.

Isaac turns to him and smiles when something in his eyes changes, he probably realized that Stiles isn’t looking at the screen but only at him. Great he is becoming Peter, creeping people out that aren’t interested in him.

Thankfully his father uses that moment to come home.

His father pops a questioning eyebrow when he sees Isaac, “Hi son, everything alright?”

Stiles gets up and walks with his father into the kitchen, telling Isaac to just continue watching.

Stiles, “Yeah everything good, you don’t mind? Isaac and I were just researching stuff, and now decided to reward ourselves with a good movie.”

His father, “Sure, no problem, did you have something to eat?”

Stiles, “Yes I made grilled cheese but we could order some pizza now?”

His father smiling, “That sounds like a good idea. So since when are you and Isaac buddies?”

Stiles rubbing his neck uncomfortable, “Well we just hung out a few times and realized that we get along pretty well, mostly.”

His father, “Mostly?”

Stiles, “Ah you know normal stuff, just a few quarrels about things.”

His father cocks a questioning eyebrow, “Things?”

How he hates it when his father goes into questioning mode and it’s especially hard now when he tries so hard to not lie anymore.

Stiles, “Well we have different opinions about the extend of help I need.”

His father, “I see, and I would probably agree with his opinion, wouldn’t I?”

Stiles, “Come on not you too! Anyway it’s okay he agreed not to meddle anymore.”

His father, “And he is sitting in our living room because?”

Stiles, “It’s not like… ah okay it was nice to have some help doing research. Are you happy now? You realize Isaac heard us and now knows that too.”

His father grins, “And he deserves to know, ask him what kind of pizza he wants.”

Isaac comes into the kitchen, he seems a bit flustered, “Thank you, but I will get on my way to the Mc … home.”

His father smiling at Isaac, “Sure, and thank you for helping my son. It’s good that he has someone who doesn’t listen to him when he says that he doesn’t need help.”

Stiles, “Come on dad!”

Isaac blushes slightly, “Thank you, I didn’t … I just thought that it wasn’t fair for him to do it all alone.”

His father slaps Isaac on his back and says, “And that is great son, not a lot of people would realize that.”

Isaac nods and looks a bit vulnerable. Stiles escorts him out of the house after Isaac got his bag.

Stiles, “Well now that you have the approval of my father too, I won’t get rid of you any time soon, will I?”

Isaac, “Do you want to?”

Stiles smiles at him, stupid werewolf with his stupid puppy look, “Nah I stand by what I said before. It’s just strange to feel like you and my father are up against me, but that’s just me being weird.”

Isaac comes a bit closer and almost whispers, “I am on your side, no matter what happens, sometimes maybe against your own will but I am unconditionally on your side.”

And with that he leaves on his bike and once again Stiles has no clue what is going on, just that his stomach is doing summersaults.

When he goes back in his father is grinning at him, “So Isaac?”

Stiles, “No, no! It’s not like that.”

His father, “And would you want it to be like that?”

Stiles blushes slightly, “It’s not important what I want, anyway Ethan is coming over tomorrow evening, is that okay?”

His father frowning a bit, “I am at work tomorrow night, are you sure you should be alone with him?”

Stiles, “Oh my god, I will be fine, Ethan’s great. So it’s okay?”

His father nods, “Yes but you call me if anything is up, anything at all.”

Stiles, “Yes sure, pizza?”

\---Isaac’s POV---

He can’t do this, no he can, he decided he would stay here and let Stiles have his wish, but what if… No nothing what if, he will be fine, Ethan isn’t a danger to Stiles, but still.

Frustrated Isaac punches his wall, the third time now, it’s his luck that he has the house to himself tonight, or Scott would have come and asked what’s up and what would he have said then? That the thought of Ethan close to Stiles makes him want to scream, that he doesn’t think that Ethan or anyone deserves Stiles, what would that sound like? No he knows exactly how that would sound, he has no clue why Stiles means so much to him. But he never had someone who was so open with him, who cared so much about him.

He crosses his room for the hundredth time still asking himself what to do, when his phone vibrates. Isaac has no clue who would text him now, but suddenly overwhelming relief floods him when he reads Stiles’s text, ‘Hope you aren’t worried, I am fine, we are just watching TV and eating Chinese.’

He grins at his phone the fact that Stiles thought about him and his worries while being alone with Ethan is amazing. 

All of a sudden he feels like the air is knocked out from him, Isaac realizes that he never felt this way, no one could make him feel like this with a simple message. But this can’t happen, he is already a werewolf, an orphan who is also a werewolf to be exact, no he can’t be any more different, he won’t be any more different.

Scott handed him the number of the blonde girl, whose name is Sue, earlier today, he had almost forgotten about it. Ethan had been flirting with Stiles heavily at lunch again, that was always pretty distracting. But now he remembers, and he texts her, ‘Hi, Isaac from chemistry here, do you fancy grabbing something to eat with me this week?’

That’s good that is better, safe not different, he can do that, he didn’t lie when he told Scott that he thought she was hot. It’s not like he ever thought that about Stiles, knowing that someone else is underestimating themselves isn’t the same as acknowledging it. Just because he isn’t blind and Stiles can’t keep his lips and hands from moving, who wouldn’t notice them?

Thankfully Sue texts back right away, ‘Yes :))), love to!!! How about tomorrow at 7?’

Isaac thinks he can remember Stiles saying something about people who overuse smileys and exclamation mark. But that is not what he should think of right now. He texts back, ‘Sure, meet you at Burger Joe’s?’ He will just drive there right after the pack meeting, Scott will be happy for him. Sue is a fast answerer, ‘Great :))!!’

That was easier than he would have thought, that’s good, so maybe he can now concentrate on his neglected homework.

His phone vibrates again, ‘You should really start watching Supernatural, Dean could teach even you a thing or two about sarcasm ;) .’

Shit, okay Isaac didn’t really think that this school year would go better than last years anyway. And why should he even care he is a werewolf, a werewolf who is in no way able to concentrate on chemistry right now. He will take a cold shower, that should help, that has to help!

\---Stiles POV---

“I hope I am not boring you.” Ethan says smiling down at him.

Stiles smiles up taking the soda Ethan just got them, while Ethan sits down next to him on the couch, Stiles says, “No! I just, it’s nothing, I just had to write a text. So the episode was great, I love human Cas!”

Ethan, “Yes it was really good, and your commentary is really funny.”

Stiles blushes, “Sorry for that, I know it’s an awful habit.”

Ethan moves a bit closer, “No it isn’t, don’t listen to Isaac! I don’t know what that guy’s problem is.”

Stiles, “No, no, you got the wrong impression of him, he isn’t like that normally.”

Ethan looks at him questioningly, “So when we are not there he doesn’t only speak in snark?”

Stiles, “Well okay that is his native tongue, but I mean you have seen him with Scott, he is really loyal when he gets to know you.”

Ethan, “Yes I have seen that, not only with Scott.”

Stiles, “Yeah he and Allison have also gotten really close.”

Ethan, “I actually meant I have seen it with you too.”

Stiles, “Really? We haven’t been friends for long, he is just a bit overprotective with me that is all. Just your typical the human is breakable stuff.”

Ethan, “It seems a bit more, but anyway he is right about that, you are way too breakable.”

With that Ethan moves a bit closer and slowly glides his fingers over Stiles’s bare arm.  
Stiles follows his fingers with his eyes, it’s an amazing sensation, it should be able to keep his thoughts from any other werewolf, it really should.

All of a sudden Ethan moves back a bit with a sad smile on his lips, Stiles must have given off some wrong vibe, and he has to admit he wasn’t completely with Ethan the whole evening. What is wrong with him? Why can’t he take the gorgeous guy next to him and not think about someone unreachable?

Ethan, “It’s late I should go, or do you want me to stay a bit longer?”

Stiles stands up with Ethan and says apologetically, “Nah you are right it’s late.”

Stiles leads Ethan to the door, their comfortable companionship grew uncomfortable very fast, Stiles hates that.

Stiles, “But we should repeat this soon!”

Ethan, “You don’t have to say that, it’s okay if you don’t want to.”

Stiles shakes his head vigorously, “No, it’s just a bad day for me, I really want to, I like you, I like spending time with you, sometimes I just think too much. But I want to see you again, outside of school.”

Ethan smiles now really, “Good! Yeah I would love to, maybe go to a movie on the weekend? And it’s okay, don’t stress yourself, I won’t pressure you!”

Stiles smiles fondly at him and they wave good-bye.

Stiles is pretty sure that he should regret that they didn’t kiss and not feel relieved. He looks at his phone again, no answer from Isaac. Stupid werewolf doesn’t know that it is just nice and fair to write back even if he didn’t ask an explicit question.

\--

This Sue person has the worst laugh Stiles has ever heard and he is pretty sure that even if Isaac would try to be funny he wouldn’t be able to get a full out laugh three times in ten minutes. Even Isaac himself seems baffled by her roaring laughter. Lunch had been so nice and calm just yesterday. Stiles can feel his muscles tensing, this is not his ideal eating situation.

Ethan leans in a bit and whispers, “Would you have made out with me if I would have laughed like that at everything you said yesterday?”

Stiles chuckles a bit and shoots Ethan a thankful smile, sarcasm that’s a form of humour he can appreciate.

Sue leaning into Isaac, “Isaac was great today in chemistry, he is really amazing at it.”  
Isaac shoots her a questioning look, “I just did what the teacher told us to do, and I am currently on a C minus I wouldn’t say I am amazing or really good at it.”

Stiles, “A C minus? You know you need a certain quote to play lacrosse, I can help you if you want to, despite what Harris always said I am not bad at chemistry.”

Ethan, “Not bad? You have straight A’s in almost every subject.”

Stiles blushes slightly, “Not in English right now, our new English teacher is not a big fan of the Stilinski charm.”

Lydia, “Well that could have something to do with the fact that you forbad her to say your first name and then called her a moron when she still tried the first syllable.”

Stiles, “I was tired, and I warned her!”

Ethan, “What is your first name anyway?”

Stiles shakes his head, “Nope, that is between me, my father and my moronic teachers.”

Sue, “And I just always thought that your parents lost a bet when they had to name you.”

Stiles shoots her a look, he knows that it isn’t her fault that she sits so close to Isaac or that she rubs Isaac’s hand, but right now he can’t bring himself to even remotely like her.

Allison, “Yeah well, so Sue is that short for Susan?”

Sue, “No, it stands for Susanna, it’s some kind of religious thing, I don’t really care, I prefer Sue. Anyway do you want to pick me up for our date tonight?”

Stiles, “What date? We have a p… we have plans, you can’t go on a ‘date.”

Isaac annoyed, “I can go on a date whenever I want to go on a date! Anyway we will meet at seven ‘our plans’ never take longer than that!”

Stiles, “Well then have fun on your date! But he unfortunately can’t pick you up Sue, because he doesn’t have a car and it could get a bit crowded on his bike!”

Isaac shoots daggers with his glare, then he suddenly smirks and smiles at Sue, “I am sure I can borrow a car and pick you up, just text me your address later.” With that he softly strokes a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

Stiles can clearly see how she blushes. He has to control himself, he can’t get so angry, he doesn’t have the right to, he needs to distract himself.

Ethan, “Are you alright?”

Stiles smiles at him, there right next to him is the solution to all his problems, he just moves closer until his thigh touches Ethan’s and lays his hand on his, “Everything’s fine I think I just overcame whatever stupid mood I was in yesterday.”

Not for any particular reason he shoots Isaac a short glance and when he sees that the werewolf’s eyes narrow in suppressed anger he feels like grinning.


	9. Chapter 9

\---Isaac’s POV---

Sometimes Stiles acts really childish! Okay yes he decided to get a bit more distance between them but that doesn’t mean that Stiles has to sit next to Peter just to avoid sitting next to him that he also sits next to Ethan doesn’t help. And Ethan is distracted because of an argument his brother and Derek are having, so he doesn’t get that Peter moved closer to Stiles inch by inch.

Stiles has realized it a minute ago, Isaac could hear his heart beat go up a notch, Stiles doesn’t know what to do about it, and Isaac understands, Peter’s and his knees are only almost touching. It is not something obvious, if anyone else would do it Isaac wouldn’t think twice, but everything Peter does is deliberate. And he frightens Stiles!

Peter now leans in and whispers something in Stiles’s ear, Isaac really tries but can’t understand what he says. Stiles backs away from Peter immediately and bumps into Ethan, who places his hand protectively on Stiles’s back while continuing his discussion.

Peter looks at them with a feral grin.

This can’t be good, nothing that makes Peter grin like that can ever be good, Isaac wants to be next to Stiles to be able to protect it. Which is stupid since he decided that they are too close, can’t someone just get rid of Peter, maybe he wouldn’t feel so protective of Stiles if the other werewolf were out of the way. No, he knows that that is an illusion because he still would get this unjustified anger whenever Ethan touches Stiles.

He growls low in frustration.

Lydia looks up from the French book she was reading and follows his gaze, “They seem comfortable with each other wouldn’t you say?”

Isaac gives her an annoyed look. She starts smiling and he realizes that he just made a mistake. And ‘Never underestimate Lydia’ is like Stiles’s number one rule.

Lydia thankfully very softly whispers, “So you are having a problem with them being together?”

Isaac swallows and whispers back, “They are not together, and anyway I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Lydia chuckles softly, “Sure, so if Stiles decided to for example loose his virginity to a certain attractive werewolves that has an eerie similarity to my ex, you wouldn’t have a problem with that.”

Isaac can feel how his eyes change to yellow for a moment, but just the thought of Ethan so horribly close to Stiles makes him loose control, he tries to suppresses his emotions when he speaks, not that Lydia hasn’t already seen his reaction, “I wouldn’t! And anyway it’s not as if this is any of your concern.”

Lydia now smiling softly at him, “I am his friend, so I am invested in his happiness and despite the fact that I get why Stiles likes Ethan I don’t think he is the perfect guy for him, I don’t know I see him with someone who gives him a bit more of a challenge, who can counter him, wouldn’t you agree?”

Isaac feels helpless for a moment, his feelings are confusing him enough without Lydia saying stuff like that. It doesn’t help that his first thought was, ‘I am like that, I can challenge him!’ He doesn’t want to be this person for Stiles he knows that! But still his thoughts are acting like traitors and contradict himself more and more.

He whispers, “I don’t know, I don’t think about who Stiles should be with or not.”

Lydia, “Sure you don’t. Just so you know if you find yourself thinking about it after all, you can always come to me to talk about it, I won’t judge your thoughts no matter what they are.”

What?! How can she say something like that, she doesn’t know, she can’t know!

Scott, “Isaac, are you okay?”

Isaac just nods, trying to get his heart rate under control and avoids looking at Stiles.

Derek frowns, “Scott! It’s not polite to point it out if your wolf sense tell you something private about a person.”

Scott, “But his heart rate was sky rocketing, Stiles gets a heart rate like that just before he has a panic attack, should I just stay quiet if a friend of mine is panicking about something?”

Derek, “Yes you should, if it’s not life or death it is the person’s own decision if he or she wants to disclose their feelings to the group.”

Peter, “Yeah Derek, because you have always been so respectful of other people’s privacy. So what scared our little pup so much?”

And suddenly all eyes are on Isaac, this doesn’t really help him controlling his heartbeat, Lydia’s whispered, “Sorry” doesn’t help either.

He shoots Stiles a pleading look, because despite the fact that he is the reason for his inner turmoil, he is the one who is most likely to help him.

Stiles, “So I get that you are not closer to a plan if Isaac’s erratic heartbeat could distract you?”

Scott gives Isaac a last questioning look before dropping his shoulders in defeat, “No, we have no clue how to do this, it might really be better to leave it to Mr Argent this time.”

Derek huffs in disagreement, they have discussed this extensively already.

Peter, “I think that sounds like a good plan, let the hunter do the work, we can enjoy ourselves a bit in the meantime, wouldn’t you say Stiles?”

Peter’s grin at Stiles makes Isaac furious; thankfully he isn’t the only one who gets it this time. Ethan moves Stiles even closer to himself, Lydia and Allison tense up and Derek says, “Stop it Peter!”

Scott, who didn’t get it at all, “What’s going on?”

Isaac can’t help it anymore, it’s like a fuse is lit, “What the hell Scott! You are his best friend and you are that blind? Have you ever asked what was going on when Peter offered the bite to Stiles, why Peter wanted Stiles to take the bite voluntarily?”

Scott still confused, he looks at Stiles, who seems frightened, “What is he talking about? You told me everything that happened didn’t you?”

Stiles looks between Isaac and Scott as if he can’t decide which way to go, “I might have given you the summary of what happened, there might have been a bit more.”

Scott, “What?”

Lydia huffs in annoyance, “Come on don’t be so daft. I am not a werewolf and even I can almost smell how indecent the things are Peter wants from Stiles.”

Scott looks shocked, “What? You mean…? Oh my god, why did no one tell me! Peter what the hell you are my Beta, you will never ever touch Stiles or come close to him or even think about him!”

Peter still smiling sarcastically, “Sure I will rein my thoughts just for you my mighty alpha.”

Scott, “You will or else …”

Peter interrupts him this time looking disturbingly serious, “Or what? Or you will throw me out of the pack and have a loose Omega in town? Or you will kill me? Please don’t ever think that you would be able to bring yourself to do that, you are way too squeaky clean for something so dirty. And my dear nephew won’t kill his only relative a second time.”

Isaac coldly, “I would kill you.”

Peter smiling at him, “Yes you would try, wouldn’t you? But don’t think that this old wolf doesn’t have a few more tricks up his sleeve. So let’s stop bluffing and I will just promise to never do anything to Stiles that he doesn’t want me to do.”

They all look at Peter stunned.

Stiles clears his throat, “He is right, we should go back to the problem at hand, I don’t think that we can get more from him than that.”

Peter smiling at Stiles, “And look who is, like always, the most reasonable in the room.”

Scott, “For now I will let it go, but I will keep an eye on you, don’t forget that!”

Peter, “Sure you will.”

Scott decides to ignore him, “So Allison you will talk to your father?”

Allison nods, “Yes I will, he would also be happy to get rid of any werewolf problem we might have by the way.”

Peter chuckles slightly.

Scott exhausted, “I will keep that in mind, good then that’s it for today. Stiles can you take me home? Isaac needs the car for his date.”

Stiles just nods looking as exhausted as Scott.

When they all leave to their cars Stiles moves close to Isaac, “Do you have a moment?”

They separate a bit from the group, and move around the corner of the building, so that the others can’t see them or hear their whispers.

Stiles, “I know you only meant well, but what the hell were you thinking? Don’t you think I had my reasons for not telling Scott?”

Isaac, “I know you had, I just thought they were stupid, he needed to know, Peter needed to realize the he isn’t in power.”

Stiles laughs dryly, “Yes and how did that go? Do you think he believes even a bit more now that he isn’t in control?”

Isaac coming a bit closer to Stiles, he can feel the other boy’s despair, “What did he whisper to you?”

Stiles looks stunned for a moment, “You saw that? It’s … It doesn’t matter, you heard him he won’t do anything I don’t want to.”

Isaac, “I also heard that that didn’t calm your heartbeat one bit.”

Stiles just looks vulnerable, like he is a moment away from breaking, “Well, it’s still Peter I don’t think anything he would say could calm me. Anyway you should go on your date now.”

Isaac knows he shouldn’t do it, he knows that that is against everything he decided yesterday evening but he just has to comfort Stiles.

So he hugs him, it is weird at first, Stiles wasn’t expecting it so his hands are now trapped between them, but after a moment he wriggles them free and hugs back, leaning into Isaac. And Isaac can feel his heart rate loosing its terrified rhythm. Stiles leans his head against his shoulder and his forehead touches the skin on Isaac’s neck. They are way too close, but Isaac doesn’t want to let him go, he can keep him safe like this, he can comfort him like this. He doesn’t want Stiles to go back to his room and be terrified all on his own.

He doesn’t even realize it when he starts stroking Stiles’s back, just the content humming from Stiles calls his attention to it. He should jerk back now, he knows that and his mind is screaming at him for staying so close, but he can’t help it, he can’t move.

Suddenly Scott calls out, “You know I would like to get home sometime today.”

Stiles sighs and moves away reluctantly, he smiles up at Isaac hesitantly, “Thanks.”

And with that he goes and leaves a very confused Isaac behind, who has a date to get to. A date he completely forgot about a moment ago.


	10. Chapter 10

\---Isaac’s POV---

“So what have you been up to today?”, Sue asks. And Isaac needs to concentrate on that he needs to start listening to her, she told him something about having been shopping and his thoughts just couldn’t follow, he needs to be in this moment, not think about stuff he really shouldn’t think about. And not miss people he just saw two hours ago!

Isaac, “Just sitting together with friends, nothing special.”

Sue smiles at him, it is more timid than at lunch, she is actually pretty nice when she doesn’t try to impress him in front of a group, he still has a hard time concentrating on her though.

Sue, “So with Scott and the others from lunch?”

Isaac nods, “Yeah all of them.”

Sue frowns a bit, “You seem like a pretty weird mixture of people.”

Isaac, “Why?”

Sue, “Well, it’s just a few of you seem to be born popular and a few are more like on the other end of the popularity scale, no offense to any of them!”

Isaac, “Who do you mean exactly, because you know, a year ago I wasn’t all that popular, I am still not.”

Sue smiles at him charmingly, “Yeah but you are hot, and you have this air of coolness around you, no idea what the problem was before but you have been one of the hottest guys around for quite a while now. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t care too much about this stuff, it’s just how high school works. And I mean Stiles probably makes up for his awkward behaviour with being fun. He once made the best joke ever during History, got detention for it, but I swear we all had stomach-ache from so much laughter afterwards.”

Isaac, “That’s typical Stiles, but he isn’t only funny. “ a bit wistful he adds, “He is the best friend you could hope for.”

Sue a bit baffled, “Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to insult anyone!”

They stay silent. And Isaac can’t help but think about Stiles, his shitty brain won’t let him control his thoughts anymore. 

Sue, “I didn’t know that you two were such good friends, I thought you were more Scott’s friend.”

Isaac, “I live in Scott’s home, and he is a really good friend of mine. Stiles … with Stiles it’s different, kind of, well he is also a friend of mine and you shouldn’t talk bad about him.”

Sue hums a bit, “Okay, like I said sorry if I said something wrong. So what is so different about Stiles?”

Isaac looks at her piercingly, “I didn’t mean, he is just, he is kind of the backbone of our … circle of friends.”

Sue smiles now again, “That sounds nice, I should get to know him better.”

Isaac just nods, he doesn’t really think that that will happen, and what if it will, if he gets together with Sue for real and Stiles and Sue become friends and they hang out all together, just the thought of it makes him groan.

Sue, “I hope you don’t mind me asking but do you have a problem with your throat?”

Isaac, “No, why?”

Sue blushes a bit, “Because you keep rubbing your hand over this spot every five minutes.” She touches the place were not long ago Stiles forehead rested on his throat. Isaac has to concentrate very hard to just sit stiffly and not growl at her. Part of him realizes that her hand feels nice that it feels soft and tender, but another bigger, louder part hates the fact that she is leaving her scent that she is diminishing the scent Stiles left.

Isaac hadn’t realized that he touched it the whole time but now that the one point were he and Stiles had skin contact is loosing their mixed scent he is getting irritated. The mixture of their smells was weirdly perfect, harmonic, in a way Isaac doesn’t understand it smelled like home to him. Like a good kind of home.

Sue lets go of his throat and looks shyly up at him, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to, sorry, if you want to we can go.”

Isaac just nods and pays, he realizes that he probably wasn’t the best date today and that he didn’t look like someone who wanted to get touched by a beautiful girl just moments ago. What the hell is wrong with him? This is the dream; this is what every teenage boy should want. His brother talked more than enough about what it would mean for Isaac to be a teenager, which girls he should try to date which girls he should avoid, and how amazing it would be to be with a girl. He never questioned that it would be a girl, but why would he have, Isaac only questioned it once and, despite being a werewolf, sometimes late at night he can still feel the scares his father left because of it.

He drives Sue home listening to her content monologue about some girl who was mad at her for talking to her boyfriend. Isaac has the feeling that this story should elicit jealousy in him, all he can think of is, that this is nice enough that this doesn’t feel bad so maybe he can do this.

He escorts her to her door and she looks up at him expectantly, the nervousness exuding her in waves. And he leans down and kisses her, because they had a date and she is a girl, a beautiful, nice girl so that’s what he wants to do. He doesn’t have to talk himself into it one bit.

Her lips are soft, a bit too soft, she tastes of the strawberry lip-gloss she uses, and it all feels weirdly wrong. Isaac can feel the awful angle his neck is at, and the cold breeze that brushes his shoulders, he also feels her body pressed against his, she must have moved closer, but it doesn’t have the hoped effect, it doesn’t have any effect really. Isaac doesn’t feel the passion to move his hands over her.

They part and he seems to have done a nice enough job, because Sue smiles up at him and says, “See you tomorrow at school!”

Isaac nods and walks back to the car.

He gets in and starts driving, his head feels muddled, he thought this would be different, he really thought that once he kissed someone like Sue his feelings would make sense, and he would feel the arousal all the boys his age talked about when they talked about hot women. He was so sure that if he just got close enough he would feel it too. It could be that Sue is just not the right girl, but there is an annoying low voice in the back of his head that tells him that it wouldn’t have felt differently with Allison or any other girl, that all their lips would have been too soft and that none of them would have smelled like home.

\---Stiles’s POV---

Wow, who would have thought that Thursdays could actually be worse than Mondays? Finally at 4 am he got a bit of sleep, but really how could he have any sooner with all this crap in his head, the moment he decided to not think about Peter and his awful insinuation, he thought about Isaac and their hug, that was a nice friendly gesture on Isaac’s part but for Stiles brought so many new problems, because he can’t deny anymore that he is not only just a bit attracted to the other boy, the feeling of him so close felt like revelation, he could have punched Scott right there for interrupting their moment. His back kept tingling all night where Isaac had stroked him. In the morning he was contemplating for almost ten minutes if he should shower or not, because obviously he is becoming a werewolf by being close to them because he didn’t want to loose the lingering smell of Isaac despite the fact that he couldn’t smell it anyway. But just the illusion was enough to make him hesitate. Only the knowledge of the other werewolves’ questions made him jump into the shower. Stiles knows that Isaac would have hated to have to justify just being a friend. And Stiles is also annoyed by it, Isaac shouldn’t have to justify being nice, it doesn’t mean anything only because he doesn’t do it so often.

And then there was also the continuing memory of Isaac going on a date, and the fact that Stiles had no clue what they did or didn’t do and that he had never felt so much like hating someone he didn’t even really know. And he knows that he doesn’t have the right to.

So he tried to be extra friendly in the morning when Sue came over to them, Isaac didn’t seem to happy about it weirdly, he just grunted and went to his class ten minutes before it actually started.

Scott had told him earlier that Isaac didn’t say anything about his date, but that he could   
smell her on him and that they had kissed obviously.

Stiles could have lived without that information, but he had asked so he deserved it really.

All during English he thought about possible reasons to not join his friends for lunch, but his sleep deprived brain didn’t have any ingenious ideas, and other than not being able to answer anything his English teacher asked, nothing came out of his search for ideas.

Lydia joined him on their way to lunch and for once looked up from one of her many books, “Are you okay? You seem a bit tired.”

A bit was the understatement of the century.

Stiles, “Nah I am fine, didn’t sleep too well.”

Lydia looks straight ahead, “Hum, so what do you think of Sue anyway?”

Stiles looks at her shocked, but no she doesn’t know why he couldn’t sleep, no even Lydia can’t read his thoughts, “I don’t know, I don’t know her well enough to have an opinion.”

Lydia chuckles dryly, “Sure, because that has ever prohibited you from forming an opinion. I don’t think she is too bad, I am just not sure if she is the right person for Isaac.”

Stiles looks at her questioningly, “What do you mean? What kind of gi … person do you think he should be with?”

Lydia suddenly gives him a knowing grin, and oh shit, he just walked right into it.

“I would say someone who can get him out of his shell, someone who he doesn’t have to act so damn cool with all the time and I have a feeling that he would also like someone who he can care for, so that he doesn’t feel like he is helpless.”

Stiles swallows hard. “Wow you really got deep into shrink mode there.”

Lydia flips her hair as they enter the lunchroom, “Nothing I can’t do during a slow moving pack meeting.”

Stiles sits down next to Ethan still a bit baffled by Lydia, not that she should be able to surprise him anymore. But well she can.

Isaac sits across from him talking with Sue, they seem comfortable, it seems more natural then it did yesterday, so their date must have been good, well it ended in a kiss so naturally it was good.

Stiles sighs in exhaustion.

Ethan, “You seem tired, sleepless night again?”

Stiles leans against him and lets his head fall onto his shoulder, it’s just nice to have a warm body to rest his head on even if it doesn’t smell completely right.

Stiles, “Nah, I think I got almost three hours of sleep.”

Stiles can hear Ethan smiling when he says warmly, “And that sounds very healthy.”

Ethan slowly strokes Stiles’s head. And Stiles decides to skip food and just closes his eyes, watching Isaac and Sue wasn’t entertaining anyway and this feels good, and easy.

He hums pleased.

“You need to eat something Stiles! You won’t get through Lacrosse practice if you don’t.” comes the grumpy voice of Isaac.

Stiles huffs but decides that he is probably right, opens his eyes and sits up.

He starts eating when he registers that Scott looks a bit strange at him and that Lydia looks at him with a smirk.

Stiles, “What?”

Scott, “Are you okay? You normally never just do what anyone tells you to do, you always start to argue if someone orders you around.”

Stiles looks at him confused, “Really? I don’t know man, Isaac was right so why should I have fought about it?”

Scott doesn’t look completely satisfied.

Sue, “So, Isaac mentioned yesterday that you are somewhat of the backbone of your little group, what exactly do you think makes you so important to them all?”

Lydia chuckles slightly from the side, but doesn’t care to elaborate.

Stiles looks baffled at Sue and then at Isaac who seems very fascinated with his empty plate all of a sudden.

Stiles, “Ahem, I don’t know I didn’t even realize that Isaac thought that I was.”

Allison, “Well you are.”

The rest of their group nod, even Aiden.

Stiles, “Really you all think so, isn’t Scott our …, I mean you know.”

Allison, “Yes he is, and everyone is important, but you are the one who keeps us together, Lydia is here because you are her friend and you stood by her side when no one did, I would feel too awkward here after everything that happened if it weren’t for Lydia and you and yes now also Isaac. Derek trusts Scott because of you and vice versa. Ethan and Aiden are here because you allowed them to be. And I think no one here wants to imagine what would happen to Scott if he didn’t have you.”

Sue, “Who is Derek?”

Lydia, “He is a friend of ours who doesn’t go to this school, you don’t need to worry about the details, this doesn’t concern you. And Allison you forgot to mention how Stiles is connected to Isaac. But maybe Isaac would like to elaborate that himself.”

She grins at the werewolf.

And Stiles doesn’t need to hear more, this is too much already.

Isaac, “I am not sure if Stiles feels comfortable with this, and we talked about it already, he knows how I f … how … that I appreciate his friendship very much.”

Lydia huffs in dismissal and just wants to say something, but Stiles can’t do this anymore, he stands up, “Sorry I forgot I had this thing, I see you later.” With that he just dashes out of the room, out of school he leans at a wall in a quiet corner and calms his breath.

He loves them all so much, and it was so nice of Allison to say that but can’t they understand how much responsibility they hand him with this, how much pressure he is under? He slowly sinks down on the wall sitting on his heels and counting his breaths. He can feel the emerging panic attack. The roaring in his ears already started and he can feel his blood pumping through his veins with too much force, his breathing stocks, he can’t do this, he knows from experience that this doesn’t kill him but right now he is sure that his heart will stop working any moment now. It will just give up from exhaustion.

He can feel hands on his shoulders and someone talking to him, but he can’t look up all he can concentrate on is a small patch of asphalt under him, and the drumming of his thundering heart.

The pressure on his shoulder grows stronger until he can feel a pinch from claws that break his skin and the trickle of blood. He looks up surprised and the bluest eyes he has ever seen greet him. He doesn’t think that he ever had the opportunity to study Isaac’s eyes from such a close range; they don’t loosen their appeal one bit.

Isaac says something, Stiles can see his lips moving, but his ears are still roaring, so he can’t understand him but Stiles also realizes that his heart rate is slowly coming down and that he feels like breathing again. Isaac pulled him out of his panic attack.

He smiles gratefully and tired at Isaac, softly he whispers, “Thanks”

Isaac rubs slow circles where he broke his skin, it doesn’t really hurt it just stings slightly.

Finally he can understand Isaac, “Can I get you something? Is there something that helps you when you have them?”

He is tired and his brain is mush, so he won’t let himself held accountable for what he does next.

Stiles leans his head carefully against Isaac’s, placing his hands on the others chest, he whispers, “You helped, you always help, no matter what I do or what I say, you help.”

Isaac continues rubbing his shoulder not moving away, “And I will continue to.”

Stiles smiles, he hears someone yelling not far from them, it gets him back into reality. He backs away a bit, looking at Isaac’s unreasonably handsome face that seems more relaxed than he has ever seen it. Stiles can’t help but blush slightly, they are still so close.

Isaac, “What happened, what triggered it?” He is still stroking Stiles’s shoulder and that is what makes it impossible for Stiles to lie or evade the question like he normally would.

Stiles, “It’s just … this is a lot of responsibility. I mean don’t get me wrong I love you all, it’s just … Peter… he kind of insinuated, not that I think it was serious, you know him and his dark humour, but I told him before you arrived yesterday that I would never let him touch me even if we were the last people on the planet. And then later, when you saw him whispering to me, he said that I shouldn’t underestimate what I would do willingly if it would mean keeping you guys safe.”

Isaac’s eyes get golden yellow for a second, but are back to their normal unnatural blue immediately, he has so much control, he is a really talented werewolf, Stiles always thought so.

Isaac, “Okay, I already hated him, this didn’t help. You probably wouldn’t agree with a plot to smother him in his sleep?”

Stiles chuckles and his chuckle grows into a full on laugh, all his tension falling away from him and the picture of Isaac with a pillow pressed to Peter’s face is just too much.

Isaac smiles at him despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to really get what was so funny.

They stand up and Stiles says, “Thank you, thanks for helping and thanks for listening.”

Isaac looks at him contemplative and then hugs him, this time Stiles can anticipate it and his arms find their place on Isaac’s back.

Isaac presses him close and whispers, “I won’t let him force you to do anything, ever!”

Stiles feels a tear trickling down his eye, stupid amazing werewolf, makes him cry in the middle of a school day.

Stiles, “Why … why do you care so much?”

Isaac moves a bit so he can look Stiles straight in the eyes, “Why shouldn’t I, everyone of the others would act exactly like I would, you heard Scott he would love to get rid of Peter.”

Stiles still sniffling slightly, “Yeah I know, but, I mean, it’s not the same with them, it’s different with you. You are … I know that Scott is the Alpha and stronger and so on, but I don’t want him to worry any more than he already does, but with you I feel like I can lean on you. I don’t know why and I also feel like we are closer in a way than the others. I am sorry I shouldn’t have said that, it’s not, I am sorry.”

He starts to move away when Isaac speaks up, “What’s with Scott, aren’t you and Scott, I mean isn’t he the closest person besides your dad for you.”

Stiles smiles fondly, “Yes he is very close and he has a fixed immensely important place in my life. But I didn’t talk with him about Peter, he didn’t ask me about him, I didn’t talk with my Dad about it either. And sometimes it just feels like when I talk about stuff like my mum or how it felt to be the completely helpless human that he tries to understand me but isn’t really able to. It’s different with you.”

Isaac nods, “Okay.” He looks a bit flustered, if Stiles wouldn’t know better he would say that he is blushing.

They walk back to their classes in silence, they are both a bit late, Stiles couldn’t care less.


	11. Chapter 11

\---Stiles’s POV---

Stiles walks up and down in front of the cinema, he isn’t the only one waiting for someone, it’s the typical Friday evening mixture of people on dates and friends. He isn’t sure to which one he belongs today probably the ones with a date, that is what Ethan wants, and what Stiles also wants, sometimes.

He is nervous, it reminds him of when he waited for Isaac in front of the cinema, only that it feels different. Stiles is nervous right now because he doesn’t know what to expect from their date, how far it will go, but he knows that Ethan will come and he knows that they will have a good time. With Isaac he hadn’t been sure that the werewolf would show up and then if they wouldn’t maybe fight the whole time. If he thinks about it like this he doesn’t understand why the nervousness he felt with Isaac was better in a way, it isn’t rational to prefer something that is more uncertain, difficult and way more chaotic.

Thankfully Ethan soon approaches with a broad grin hugging Stiles in greeting. It’s nice. Perfectly fine, not every hug has to be earthshattering.

Ethan, “Ready?” Stiles smiles at him and they go buy tickets, or better Stiles tries to buy his own ticket but Ethan takes it upon him to pay for it. At least he can buy his own popcorn. He should find it romantic, but he is really not into this patronizing thing.  
The movie’s nice enough not spectacular but fun. This sums up quite a lot of the evenings he spends with Ethan.

Ethan, “Do you want to go for a drink?”

Stiles nods, he can’t just leave it here, he has to give this a real chance, lunch with Isaac and Sue is bad enough as it is if he wouldn’t at least have Ethan as a distraction he couldn’t bear it.

The place is nice, couples just finished their dinner, they sit down on the bar and thanks to Danny’s great fake Ids get some beers.

Ethan, “So, did you like the movie?”

Stiles shrugs his shoulders, “It was nice and fun.”

Ethan, “So you didn’t really like it?”

Stiles surprised, “I didn’t say that, why would you think that?”

Ethan smiles at him, “Come on, nice and fun? That is never the summary of something that is really great and especially with you, who described the latest episode of Supernatural in words like epic, amazing and the best thing ever, nice and fun doesn’t mean anything good.”

Stiles looking at his feet in thought, “But it could. And it wasn’t a bad movie.”

Ethan, “No it wasn’t, but there is a difference between being not a bad movie and being a really good movie. The first one is ‘nice and fun’ the second one is ‘the best thing ever’.”  
Stiles, “But maybe it doesn’t always have to be ‘the best thing ever’, there are so many movies out there that are just good, shouldn’t that be enough?”

Ethan looks at him questioningly suddenly, “We aren’t really talking about movies are we?”

Stiles twitches, “Sure we are, what else would we talk about? Anyway, Lacrosse was gruel today!”

Ethan very seriously, “Stiles if you …”

Thankfully he gets interrupted, not so thankfully the interruption comes from Sue, who seemingly just finished her date with Isaac, great. So Stiles should have asked where they had planned to go, that is what he gets for not wanting to by nosy.

Sue, “What a coincidence!”

She smiles broadly at them, apparently happy to see them, Isaac stands in his normal arrogantly manner at her side. He doesn’t look happy to see them.

Stiles, “Well we live in Beacon Hills, it’s not as if there are too many places to go to.”

Isaac, “I thought you were planning on going to the cinema.”

Ethan, “We were, we watched ‘Machete Kills’.”

Isaac’s eyes shimmer in slight anger, but he has it under control pretty quickly.

Stiles, “I am sorry, but you said you didn’t have time and I wanted to watch it. But it wasn’t all too good anyway.”

Ethan studies him, “Just a moment ago you said it was nice and fun.”

Isaac, “That’s the same as not good in Stiles’s world. If he describes anything as less than great it’s not really good.”

Ethan a bit pissed, “I know that! But thanks for the lecture in how to understand him.”

Isaac smirks, “You are welcome.”

Sue leans a bit into Isaac, “Was nice running into you, but we should get going, we wanted to walk around a bit before he has to get me home.”

She says it with a glittering in her eyes that lets no doubt to what she really plans on doing with Isaac, and Stiles wants to vomit. It doesn’t matter that she is a perfectly nice girl he can’t stand her right now.

Isaac, “Yeah you are right we should get going, nice to see you.”

For a moment Isaac meets Stiles’s eyes and he feels like he can detect a hint of sadness there, but that doesn’t make any sense.

When they are gone Ethan gets up and pays for their drinks.

Stiles, “We don’t have to go already, we could have another one.”

Ethan looks at him slightly annoyed, “It’s not as if that would get us anywhere, so lets just stop this charade, I’ll drive you home, your father wouldn’t want me to let you drive under the influence.”

Stiles, “It was just one beer! But thanks anyway.”

They go to his car in silence, when they are inside Stiles decides that he doesn’t want to end it this way.

Stiles, “What did you mean by charade?”

Ethan, “You don’t like me, not like that, and you try and everything, but you really don’t and if I have to defend myself one more time against Isaac because of you I will punch his pretty little face into pulp.”

Stiles chuckles slightly, “Sorry for him, he can be pretty annoying I know. But it’s really not like that I do like you, I swear! I am just so new to this, and when I see you talking to Danny I have no clue why you are even interested in me. I am in no way like him.”

Ethan, “You actually are in quite a few ways like him not that that is why I like you. But it doesn’t hurt that you are both very loving, utterly loyal people.”

Stiles smiles at Ethan, “Thanks, that’s nice.”

Ethan smiles back, “Okay so maybe just going after one drink wasn’t my best idea.”

Stiles nervously, “Well, my father has a night shift, if you want to you could come in.”

Ethan looks at him seriously, “You are sure?”

Stiles, “Yes, yes I want you to.”

Ethan smiling broadly, “Good, that sounds nice.”

They park in front of his house and Stiles leads him up to his room, because there is no reason to stay in the living room this time. His heart is fluttering, but he will do this, he won’t just stay alone at home and think about what Isaac is doing with Sue, no he will get his own distraction.

In his room Stiles is nervously shuffling around, trying to get rid of his dirty laundry.

Stiles gestures to one of his bookcases, “That is where I keep my comic books, there you can see my desk where most of my research magic is happening then my closet where all my hoodies come from apart from the ones that you see in varying parts of the room, that there is a lamp, really nice, lights the room very well and …”

Ethan interrupts him and moves closer to him, “It’s okay, I understand that you are nervous, I won’t do anything you don’t want to!”

Stiles nods and Ethan bends his head down so slow that he gives Stiles every chance to back down. But he wants this, he really does. He doesn’t need a perfectly alabaster skinned smirking werewolf in his life.

Ethan kisses him hesitantly at first, it’s nice enough and Stiles decided earlier already that he wouldn’t back down. Ethan deepens his kiss a bit and opens his mouth with his tongue, still not too bad. And Stiles can feel how his hormones start working and he just lets himself go with it and leans into Ethan, he places his hand on Ethan’s chest, it feels nice. Ethan presses back at him and somehow they land on Stiles’s bed Ethan on top of him, probably some kind of werewolf agility trick.

Now Ethan starts kissing his neck and Stiles has to stop himself from thinking too much because his stupid brain decides just now to think of the last time Isaac visited him in his room and that that was the thing that started this all. Ethan is shirtless all of a sudden and that is a pretty good distraction from his traitorous thoughts. Ethan starts to pull on Stiles’s shirt now and Stiles gets up a bit so Ethan can remove it. He feels self-conscious despite the fact that they all have seen enough already in their locker room, but Ethan doesn’t seem to have anything against his body. He just strokes his hands over Stiles’s chest and when he brushes over his nipples Stiles jolts a bit, yes he can get on board with this, this is really good.

Ethan moves back to his mouth and kisses him full on again while letting his hands stroke up over his back, suddenly Ethan jerks back a bit and turns Stiles so he can look at the piercing marks that Isaac left the day before.

Ethan, “What happened? Who did this?”

Stiles, “It’s nothing!”

Ethan looking Stiles now straight in the eyes, “Nothing? A werewolf pierced you with his claws, either someone attacked you and you forgot to tell us or you had another werewolf in your bed!”

Why does he have to blush now, why?

Ethan gets a furious look about him, “What the hell! You are acting like such a nice innocent guy and that is what you are really up to?”

Stiles shakes his head strongly, but the blushing still isn’t going anywhere, “No! No, it’s not like that, it wasn’t, I swear it wasn’t, I just had a bit of a panic attack and Isaac didn’t know what else to do.”

Ethan seems a bit less furious now, but still as doubtful, “Isaac, huh? What exactly is it with you two, because this whatever it is you two are having doesn’t seem all that innocent.”

Stiles swallows hard, still red as a tomato, “It’s not … he just helped me, that’s all he does. And he is straight anyway, so …” and Stiles just shrugs his shoulders because really it seems useless to be jealous about someone who couldn’t be less interested in him. When he watches Ethan’s face contort in frustration he realizes that he is wrong.

Ethan, “So if he weren’t straight?”

Stiles helplessly, “He is so it doesn’t matter.”

Ethan, “Oh it really does! You want to be with him don’t you?”

Stiles swallows hard he can’t look at Ethan anymore and very fast he says, “It’s not like that, I and he, there will never be a I and Isaac so why think about it, and anyway most of the time he is a smirking bastard we fight more often than not, he is infuriating beyond reason and says stuff that makes me want to skin him, but he also makes me laugh and cares about me, so what I wanted to say he is my friend and nothing more, it’s not like we wouldn’t drive each other mad if we ever tried something like being more than friends not that that is even an option or a consideration.”

Stiles feels like the word vomit he just had might be under the top ten of his worst ones.

Ethan looks sad and tired now, “You are in love with him.”

Stiles jerks his head and stares at Ethan in shock, “I am not … it’s not … he just … I don’t know what you are getting at.”

Ethan sadly, “You can’t even deny it, it’s fine, well no it’s not fine, I would have liked to have that information before I got invested, but your feelings aren’t your fault.”

Stiles weak, “I don’t … but I really don’t want to be in …”

Ethan smiles sadly at him, “We can’t choose who we fall for.”

Stiles nods slowly, “So we are…?

Ethan cocks his eyebrow, “Over! Obviously, I don’t do this second choice thing, I mean look at me I should be the first choice!”

Stiles chuckles lightly, “Yes you really should.”

They both put their shirts on and Ethan says, “Well I’ll go then, don’t worry we can still be friends.”

Stiles nods and moves to his window when Ethan leaves his house, he follows the werewolf with his eyes until he can’t see him anymore. Only then he lets himself fall onto his bed with a string of “Shit, shit, shit, I hate you Isaac, shit, shit, shit.”

Because even if it didn’t feel perfect with Ethan even if there were no butterflies, it still was very nice, it made him feel wanted in a way he had never felt before, and it made his stupid crush at Isaac bearable. And it was only a stupid crush he wasn’t in love with the stupid white-skinned devil, he couldn’t be, his heart wouldn’t be able to get through this.

 

\---Isaac’s POV---

He and Sue have been walking for a bit now, talking about this and that, but they have been silent for the past five minutes so Isaac just says, “Well this is nice.”

Not good, but better than thinking about stupid Ethan with stupid Stiles.

Sue stops suddenly and looks at him questioningly, “Nice, really? Do you have an idea what I had in mind when I suggested going for a walk? And I can guarantee you it had nothing to do with actual walking or talking!”

Isaac looks at her clueless until he realizes what she is saying, oh, he should have kissed her and maybe something more. Hmm, that’s not good, because he kind of realized on their last date that that really wasn’t his thing, she probably wouldn’t want to know that.

Isaac, “Ahem…”

Sue, “Oh my god! You don’t want to! What the hell? You know you asked me out, not the other way around!”

Isaac rubs his neck, “I am sorry, I didn’t know, it’s not … you are really hot and great and all I don’t know I just don’t really feel it, I am sorry!”

Sue huffs annoyed, “Great, that helps wonderfully, so who is it?”

Isaac confused, “Who is what?”

Sue, “Who is it you always think about when your face gets this distant look, who is it that doesn’t make you want to kiss me, who is it that you try to make jealous with me?”

Isaac, “I really don’t think that that has anything to do with the kissing thing.” And it’s weird because as he says it he realizes that it really doesn’t, and he still isn’t sure what to do next maybe he will just never be with someone, he is fine with that, but he won’t force himself to be with Sue or any girl if it doesn’t feel good.

Sue, “But there is someone, so again who is it?”

Isaac, “It’s not … I am just … I didn’t plan on making anyone jealous and I mean I couldn’t have it’s not like this person feels like that.”

Sue now softly, “It’s Stiles isn’t it?”

Isaac shocked, “What? Why would you think that?”

Sue smiles tenderly, “It’s fine don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, it’s how you talked about him the other day, and you always look where he is in school and you get a light scowl on your face if he is with Ethan. To be honest if you know what to look for it’s pretty obvious, but I don’t think your friends know.”

Isaac swallows hard and leans back against a tree, “I don’t … I really don’t know what to say to that.”

Sue, “Then don’t say anything, just drive me home, it wasn’t nice to get me into this mess, but I can live with it and I will still brag with having dated one of the hottest guys in school even if only briefly.”

He drives her home and they chat nicely, she waves at him before she walks inside her house. Isaac starts driving back without thinking about it, his head is spinning.

Because one thing is clear now, he likes Stiles, and not in the same way he likes Scott. He really has no clue what to do with this information, his thoughts are just a string of ‘I like Stiles, I can’t, I really like him, I can’t, I want to touch him, I can’t’.

When he finally concentrates on the road again he realizes that he stopped. In front of Stiles’s house.


	12. Chapter 12

\---Isaac’s POV---

He doesn’t even really comprehend it when he gets out of Mrs McCall’s car and jumps up Stiles’s roof, opening the not completely closed window.

Stiles is laying on his bed fully dressed and has his head buried in his pillow. A horrible smell of Ethan greets Isaac and makes him growl.

Stiles jerks up and looks at Isaac stunned, “What are you doing here?”

Isaac can’t blame Stiles for being surprised, Isaac himself has no idea why he is here.

Isaac, “I … I just wanted to check up if everything is okay with you.”

Stiles stands up and walks over to Isaac looking at him serious, “Really?”

Isaac swallows hard and nods.

Stiles, “So I guess your date didn’t go all too well?”

Isaac shakes his head slightly, he can’t speak, he doesn’t know what he might say if he does.

Stiles, “Well, I didn’t like her too much anyway. So again why exactly are you here?”  
Isaac tries to avoid Stiles boring gaze, “Like I said I was concerned about you, after yesterday…”

Stiles jerks his hands in the air, “Come on! Won’t you come up with something better? And if that really is the reason then you have learned nothing from the time you spent with me the past weeks, because even if I may appreciate your help on occasion I am very capable of looking after myself! I don’t need a watchdog!”

Oh this is better, Stiles is getting on Isaac’s nerves now, and that’s something he can work with.

Isaac, “You know this is getting boring, because it is very obvious that you can’t look after yourself when you come to school so tired that you almost fall asleep during lunch!”

Stiles angrily, “And whose fault is that?!”

Isaac is a bit confused and Stiles clasps a hand over his mouth and looking flustered turns his back to Isaac.

Stiles, “You should just go.”

Isaac, “What did you mean with that? How is it my fault that you can’t sleep?”

Stiles moves a bit away from Isaac, but he can still smell his nervousness rather strongly, “It’s not … I don’t know why I said that, just leave me alone!”

Isaac gets closer to Stiles, puts a hand on Stiles’s shoulder and turns him so he can look him in the eyes, Stiles is blushing heavily.

Isaac, “You are lying.”

Stiles, “Damn it! I have the right to lie, leave it alone!”

They are standing pretty close Isaac still has his hand on Stiles’s shoulder, the other teen’s heart is pounding heavily, Isaac is pretty sure that his own heart isn’t any less erratic.

Isaac, “How am I connected to your sleepless nights?”

Stiles tiredly, “You are not, mostly not, mostly it’s nightmares, sometimes about Gerard sometimes about other stuff, sometimes it’s thinking about Peter that keeps me up, I have multiple reasons for not being able to sleep.”

Isaac, “And I am one of them?”

Stiles grunts in frustration, “You know you are like a dog with a bone, you just won’t let it go!”

Isaac smirking now, “Well I think that is a trait I learnt from you.”

Stiles exhales sufferingly, “Maybe, but I swear it’s not important.”

Isaac cocks his eyebrow, “Not important? I don’t want to keep you up at night.”

Stiles suddenly pushes him back angrily, “I know that!”

Isaac is confused for a moment until he realizes how what he just said sounded like. And now it’s his turn to blush, and his stupid brain can’t stop thinking what it would be like if he really kept Stiles up at night and not in thought but with his body pressed close to him. Oh this is so not going in a good direction.

Stiles look of anger transforms into curiosity, “You still didn’t give me a good explanation for why you are here.”

Isaac stares at the other boy his breathing coming out harshly, he knows that he is bright red and all he can concentrate on is not to look at Stiles’s bed, because his thoughts right now have a lot of images of him and Stiles in said bed.

Stiles moves a bit closer again and looks up from under his long eyelashes, Isaac never realized how perfect they fit Stiles’s face.

And then Stiles licks his lips nervously and Isaac can’t help it he looks down at them and his eyes follow Stiles’s tongue as it traces his lips. He swallows heavily.

Stiles stutters, “I … I don’t … I mean do you … it’s really over between you and Sue?”

Isaac nods and carefully as not to give his feelings away says, “It’s not as if we were a couple, but yes it’s definitely over, what’s with you and Ethan, I can smell him pretty heavily on you, you know?”

Stiles exhales a shaky breath, “We are over too.”

Isaac, “And it smells like him because?”

Stiles, “He was here, we … talked … he might have seen the marks you left and then we kind of came to the conclusion that it wasn’t really working between us.”

Isaac questioningly, “He left you because you had marks from me? Did you explain that you had a panic attack and I had to help you?”

Stiles a bit annoyed, “Yes I did, and it was not just the marks and you didn’t ‘have to’ help me.”

Isaac huffs coldly, “Sure because I should have just let you panic and not intervene that really would have been the right thing to do.”

Stiles tilts his head a bit looking at Isaac curiously, “Why did you come after me anyway, why didn’t Scott or Ethan do it?”

Isaac, “No clue why they didn’t. I just … I wanted to make sure you were okay, seeing you like this, please don’t ever say again that I didn’t have to help you, because I really did, there was nothing that could have kept me from helping you.”

Stiles flails with his arms while saying, “You can’t say stuff like that! You have to stop! I can’t … I can’t cope with this.”

Isaac moves a bit closer so that he can feel Stiles’s breathing on his face and he can smell Ethan on way too many places, he wants to stroke his smell away. Slowly he moves his hand to Stiles’s neck and lightly touches the places Ethan kissed, it’s not enough but better than nothing.

Stiles makes a strangled sound.

Isaac, “I know I shouldn’t say it, but I sometimes have to, you think too little of yourself, you have to know how much you mean to people, and how horrible it would be for us if anything happened to you.”

Stiles, “For us?”

Isaac, “Yes for us … and for me, please promise me to take care of yourself, I can’t … I don’t want to imagine a world without you.”

Isaac can feel Stiles’s speeding pulse under his skin and his own heart speeds up in accord. This feels so right, being close to Stiles like this touching him like he can, he doesn’t want this to end. He traces Stiles’s neck over and over again, it starts to smell of him and not of Ethan anymore, he needs more. Isaac starts stroking up and tracing Stiles’s lower lip with his thump.

Stiles sounding breathless, “What are you doing?” When Stiles speaks Isaac’s thump moves a bit into Stiles’s mouth, the touch of Stiles’s tongue on his skin sends a jolt through Isaac.

He is as breathless as Stiles now, “I don’t know, but you smell of Ethan, I don’t like that.”

Stiles is breathing hard and suddenly really licks Isaac’s thump, and Isaac almost moans.

He looks down into Stiles’s eyes. Stiles looks up at him expectantly and suddenly moves his gaze over Isaac’s lips and the desire he sees in Stiles’s eyes makes him shudder.

Overly eager and without any finesse he plants his lips on Stiles after removing his thump and laying his hand on the back of Stiles’s neck. Their lips meet in a dry smack, it’s nothing really and still it makes Isaac realize what people think of when they say it feels like fireworks went off.

He slowly traces Stiles’s upper and then lower lip with his tongue, enjoying every shudder that comes from Stiles and enjoying the distinct feeling of Stiles under him. Stiles opens his mouth and Isaac takes it as an invitation. He presses their mouths together and darts his tongue inside. His knees almost get weak as he is assaulted by the full on taste of Stiles, he tastes like he smells just so much more, there is a slight trace of beer in there and a slight trace of Ethan that makes him growl, but under it all it is pure and utterly Stiles and it feels perfect. Stiles shudders as he growls into his mouth and Isaac can’t help himself and presses his whole body into Stiles. Stiles hips jerks against him involuntarily at the sensation and Isaac is glad to feel that this has as much impact on Stiles as on him.

Slowly they move to Stiles’s bed until Stiles’s legs push against the bed.

Isaac takes his mouth of Stiles’s who whimpers at the loss.

Isaac strokes Stiles’s face, “Do you want to lay down?” He feels insecure, he has no clue what he is doing here and he knows he can’t think too much about it or the magic of the moment could be broken, but he also knows that he wants to lick every trace Ethan left away.

Stiles smiles at him languidly and nods. Slowly they descend on the bed lying next to each other, and suddenly Isaac can smell Ethan again very strongly, he jolts away a bit and looks at Stiles angrily, “Ethan was in your bed?!”

Stiles timidly, “Just a bit.”

Isaac’s eyes glow yellow now, “What exactly did you two do?”

Stiles, “Nothing much!”

Isaac, “What exactly did you two do, where did he touch you, how naked have you been?”

Stiles swallows heavily, “You can smell where he touched me! We were shirtless nothing more and other then he kissing and touching me above the belt, nothing happened!”

Isaac quickly pushes Stiles up and removes his shirt, before Stiles can comment he removes his own shirt too that seems to distract Stiles pretty good. It feels great how Stiles’s gaze rakes over his naked chest and even better when Stiles decides looking isn’t enough and starts stroking his hands over it, “Oh my god, you are perfect!”

Isaac now studies Stiles too, his lean body looks amazing, he traces over it the same way Stiles does over his. He pushes Stiles softly to the bed again and starts tracing Ethan’s smell with his hand, when he strokes over Stiles’s nipple the other boy jolts moaning, “Oh my god, yes!”

Isaac lowers his head and darts his tongue to lick Stiles’s nipple the answering, “Oh fuck!” makes him smile, he continues to lick and starts sucking, while stroking the other one. Stiles rakes his fingers through Isaac’s hair without any finesse or softness to it and Isaac loves how much Stiles is lost in passion.

He moves up again and kisses Stiles open mouthed and passionately, he will get rid of every memory Stiles ever had of Ethan. Stiles moans into his mouth, and Isaac presses his hips down which means their lower halves now grind together. Isaac can’t keep himself from moaning; Stiles pumping his hips against him is the best thing he ever felt.

He starts kissing Stiles’s neck and Stiles drives his nails over his back, which makes Isaac bury his teeth lightly into Stiles’s neck, just enough to leave a mark and the realization of Stiles having a mark of him makes him speed up his pumping he can feel that he is close, Stiles sighs, “This feels so good!”

He strokes over Stiles’s nipples again hard and that seems to do it for Stiles he buckles up and stutters, “Oh … oh my god Isaac.”

And hearing his name like that does it for Isaac he grinds against Stiles one last time and then can feel the earth shattering, it has never before felt like this.

Isaac lets his head fall onto Stiles’s chest and just lies there breathing hard. Stiles breathes equally hard and strokes Isaac’s hair tenderly.

After a while Isaac must have drifted of, because the next thing he remembers is Stiles stirring nervously under him and hearing the Sheriff coming up the stairs. Isaac would like to just ignore it all and let his head stay where it is, he can hear Stiles’s heart beat so clearly and his lips brush slightly against Stiles’s naked skin.

Isaac, “Your father’s home, will he look into your room?”

Stiles, “He might.”

Reluctantly Isaac gets up and puts his shirt on. Stiles looks at him unsure of himself and also puts his shirt on.

Stiles, “You … If you don’t want to you don’t have to go.”

Isaac looks at him questioningly when he hears the Sheriff approach the door he moves so that he stands behind the door and Stiles quickly throws his sheet over himself and acts as if he is sleeping.

The sheriff opens the door, hesitating for a moment before he says, “You know I can tell the difference between you really sleeping and you faking it. Is Scott here? I saw Melissa’s car outside.”

In Isaac’s opinion Stiles’s act of the just awakened is pretty convincing, “What? Nah, no clue, maybe he forgot it when he was here earlier and just jogged home, I’ll text him.”

The sheriff, “I thought you had a date with Ethan earlier.” It’s not a question.

Stiles swallows, “Ah that didn’t turn out so well, anyway aren’t you always complaining that I sleep too little?”

The sheriff, “Sure, and Isaac’s also not here?”

Stiles blushes slightly and clear’s his throat, “Why … why should Isaac be here?”

The sheriff, “He uses Melissa’s car too. Well I’ll let you get back to sleeping … just remember, be safe!”

With that he closes the door and Isaac and Stiles stare at each other with huge eyes, suddenly Stiles starts to giggle.

Isaac doesn’t get what’s so funny, Stiles’s father just insinuated… No he can’t … they can’t know … he can’t be the guy that …

He moves quickly to the window.

Stiles sounding unsure, “Are you leaving?”

Isaac, “Yeah I think I had Mrs McCall’s car long enough, she won’t be happy if she doesn’t have it for the morning shift.”

Stiles, “Okay, but… do you want to do something this weekend?”

Isaac with his back to Stiles, “I don’t know I have a lot of homework.”

Stiles, “Sure.”

And Isaac just leaves. Back in the car he tries to breath, he tries not to think of Stiles’s devastated tone, he tries to forget what it felt like having him so close, kissing him.  
He has no clue what to do now, he can’t do this, but he really isn’t sure if he can not do it. Because seeing Stiles like that, feeling him like that, hearing him like that, felt like finding a treasure, and he isn’t sure if he can give this up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this happened... hope you liked it.


	13. Chapter 13

\---Stiles’s POV---

He can’t remember ever sleeping so good, he might be mad at Isaac and this weekend might have consisted of a lot of thinking about how to hit the handsome werewolf, but he still was able to sleep better than in a long time not only when Isaac was laying on his chest but also the following nights, the memory of Isaac kissing him, licking him, biting him kept him weirdly relaxed. Stiles doesn’t really understand why, hell he doesn’t even understand how it happened but he now knows that Isaac feels something for him too and that Isaac is definitely not as straight as Stiles thought he was.

So for once Stiles has a happy grin on his face on Monday morning when he greets Scott at his locker.

Stiles, “What’s up Scott?”

Scott looks at Stiles surprised, “You are cheerful.”

Stiles, “Yeah, sure it’s a beautiful day, why shouldn’t I be?”

Scott confused, “It’s Monday morning, you are never in a good mood on Monday mornings.”

Stiles shrugs, “Well today is different.”

Scott just starts, “Why is …” but interrupts himself when he realizes that Stiles’s attention has wandered on to Isaac who is just approaching.

Isaac looks very uncertain and avoids looking at Stiles.

Isaac to Scott, “We should go to class.”

Scott confused, “It only starts in fifteen minutes, why should we go already?”

Isaac looks to the floor and moves from one food to the other.

Scott, “Are you alright? You have been acting weird all weekend.”

Stiles, “He has?”

Isaac, “Stiles, I am here you don’t need to talk about me as if I am not.”

Stiles, “Well I wasn’t sure if you would answer me if I asked you anything directly since you couldn’t answer any of my texts.”

Isaac, “You make it sound like I didn’t answer a dozen of your texts, you only sent two.”

Stiles smirks now, “So you got them.”

Scott completely irritated, “What is going on?”

Stiles smiles at his friend, “Nothing, Isaac here is just a bit slow with processing things.”

Isaac arrogantly, “Maybe I am just really quick with figuring out that what happened wasn’t meaningful in any way.”

Stiles steps a bit closer to Isaac, because no matter what the werewolf says he won’t give up what he had on Friday, no way in hell!

When they are only inches away Stiles looks up at Isaac from under his eyelashes, bats them innocently and says to a gulping Isaac, “I really don’t think that that is true.”

Isaac blushes heavily and when Stiles licks his lips deliberately he can see Isaac’s eyes follow the movement of his tongue. Stiles smirks.

Scott, “Ahem I missed something didn’t I?”

Stiles steps back from Isaac and smiles at his friend, “Don’t worry, it doesn’t concern you.”

Scott looks doubtful when he suddenly looks at Stiles neck and the bite mark Isaac left, “What is that?”

It’s now Stiles turn to blush, “Nothing.”

Isaac, “Are you sure?”

Now Isaac wants him to talk about it? Stupid werewolf!

Stiles shoots him an annoyed glance and says, “Yes, before the person who left the mark can admit to leaving it, it’s nothing!”

With that he leaves Scott and Isaac, marching to his History class. It’s very likely that even the oblivious Scott now got what is going on. Stiles isn’t completely sure how he feels about that but his mind is preoccupied with plans to get Isaac to stop ignoring what is going on between them.

\--

Okay, Stiles forgot to consider how lunch would be now that he and Ethan weren’t anything anymore and Sue had also returned to her friends. He tries not to look too hesitant when he approaches the table, with one seat left next to Ethan and one next to Isaac.

Five more steps and he has to decide where to sit, ah, it should be easy he should just be able to sit next to Isaac and not think about it, but then he truly fears that he will pour his coke over the werewolf if he acts like he did this morning and he also doesn’t want to offend Ethan.

Now it’s three more steps and if he walks any slower he won’t have any time to eat before lunch is over.

Isaac looks up at him following his gaze between the two empty seats and suddenly sneering when he seems to realize that Stiles isn’t sure if he should sit next to Ethan.  
Stiles has to smile at that.

Ethan, “Stiles just sit down, I don’t care where, if you go any slower you’ll go backwards.”

Stiles blushes a bit he was hoping that the others didn’t realize his dilemma.

He sits down next to Ethan smirking at Isaac, who seems very annoyed all of a sudden.

Stiles, “How was your weekend?”

Ethan, “Good, I went out, it was fun, but probably not as fun as yours.”

Stiles confused, “What do you mean?”

Ethan, “I mean this”, and he raises his hand and slowly brushes over the mark Isaac left.

Now Isaac growls for real, Ethan puts his hand away and smirks at Isaac, “I thought so.”

Scott bumps his head on the table in obvious frustration.

Isaac looks suddenly very insecure; it reminds Stiles of how he looked before he became a werewolf.

Stiles, “So do we know anything new about the shadow warrior thing?”

Allison, “No not really, but my father is on it. He said that …”

Lydia interrupts her, “That’s really fascinating, but I am way more interested in how Stiles spent his weekend, it sounds like it was splendid!”

Isaac grunts, stands up and leaves the lunchroom.

Stiles roles his eyes and says to Lydia, “Thanks!” with that he stands up and follows Isaac. They have to talk about this!

The werewolf probably knows that Stiles is following him but he doesn’t act like it while he leaves the school and walks to the same quiet corner Stiles had his panic attack the week before.

When he arrives there he turns. He looks really angry, “What do you want?”

Stiles, “Obviously I want to talk about what happened Friday.”

Isaac, “I don’t see how that would do any good.”

Stiles shrugs, “Well we don’t have to talk we can also just repeat it, multiple times would be best.”

Isaac looks stunned for a moment, then he suddenly grabs Stiles and presses him against the wall looking dangerously, “This is what you want?”

Oh this stupid werewolf, Stiles had to deal with aggressive Derek on more than one occasion, this isn’t frightening him.

Stiles grabs Isaac’s neck and uses the werewolf’s surprise to his advantage pressing their lips together and kissing the other werewolf passionately, it doesn’t take more than two seconds for Isaac to reciprocate.

It feels so right, they are a bit better at it by now, it’s not as dry as their first try but it’s as hot. Stiles wants to loose himself in Isaac if he could halt time this moment would be where it all stops because nothing feels more perfect than Isaac so close to him, their mouths pressed together.

Unfortunately at some point Stiles runs out of air and they have to separate but Stiles keeps his hand on Isaac’s neck and doesn’t allow him to back up for more than a few inches.

Isaac’s eyes are blazing with arousal he is as breathless as Stiles.

Stiles, “So tell me again how what happened on Friday was not meaningful.”

Isaac looks anxious again and Stiles can feel him pull away, oh no, this won’t do!

Stiles, “Don’t worry, I get it, this is a bit overwhelming for you, you probably never considered being into guys and now you have these weird feelings for me, who wouldn’t be your obvious choice in any universe. But … I mean … I kind of like you and we can just take it very slow if you …”

Sometime during his little speech Stiles realized that he got pretty presumptuous, but then Isaac has to like him if he wants to kiss him doesn’t he?

Isaac looks at him astounded and kisses him this time it is just a short sweet kiss that consists of a grazing of lips, it feels like an unspoken thank you.

Isaac as he backs away a bit, he swallows heavily, “It’s not… it’s not … I didn’t feel anything when I kissed Sue, and I have one time in the past it was quite some time ago thought about … stuff. But I am not sure if I can… I am not as brave as you. I am not sure if I am up to this.”

Stiles nods, “Okay I get it, but you don’t want to stop kissing me, do you?”, Stiles bites his lip nervously afraid of the answer.

Isaac smiling now, “No I really don’t.”

Stiles smiles back, “That’s good!”

They kiss again as the bell tells them that lunch break’s over.

Stiles a bit breathless, “Do you want to come over in the evening?”

Isaac looks regretful, “I can’t, it’s werewolf training time with Derek.”

Stiles nods, “Okay, but text me later how it was and how often Derek grunted annoyed ‘I can’t do this anymore’.”

Isaac smiles, “I will.”

With that they leave to their classes walking very close so that their hands graze each other’s. Stiles can’t help but smile.

\--

For the first time ever Stiles is actually afraid of the pack meeting today. Even the first time they had it when Scott had been a pretty new alpha he hadn’t been as nervous. And it’s not even that he is so much nervous for himself than for Isaac.

They didn’t talk any more about what they are doing, but if the make-out session yesterday night was any clue Isaac was still on board with it all. In school he was friendly on a usual level but as soon as anyone insinuated anything or Scott looked weird he seemed insecure and mostly just left.

So Stiles is afraid that as soon as their being together becomes part of a public discussion that he will loose him and he doesn’t want to! He can’t even imagine being without him anymore. Isaac still annoys him sometimes or pretty often actually but he also realized late last night after Isaac left just before he fell into a nightmare-less sleep that he is in love with the smirking bastard, that the constant buzzing in his stomach are the always sung of butterflies and that he doesn’t mind yelling and being angry at Isaac one bit, that it doesn’t diminish his feelings in the slightest.

And it could all be over after today, because Stiles doesn’t have any illusions about this meeting. They will talk about it, Scott knows they have something even if he has yet to directly ask one of them, Lydia also knows which her broad and knowing grin at lunch made clear, Ethan also knows obviously and Aiden seems to have known before Stiles or Isaac had a clue. So there is no way they will get around it today, and it’s not as if the mark on Stiles’s neck has vanished, how could it when Isaac gave it so much attention the night before.

Stiles still decided to wear a scarf, not that it will help but maybe for once the universe would throw him a bone and Peter wouldn’t comment on the mark.

“So I see you and Ethan are having fun.”, Peter trumpets with a smirk toward Stiles’s scarf, when Stiles enters Derek’s flat, well he didn’t really think that he had a chance anyway.

He gets rid of the scarf and sits down on one of the already placed pillows just pulling out his chemistry book when Lydia and Allison arrive.

Peter, “So Ethan and Stiles are getting closer?”

Stiles shoots Lydia a warning look, Allison unfortunately doesn’t see it.

Allison, “No, why? They aren’t dating anymore.”

Peter smirking at Stiles, “So who is the lucky guy then?”

Derek emerging from his bedroom, “Leave him alone.”

Scott and Isaac choose that moment to arrive, Scott with a hand placed on Isaac’s arm and Isaac with a scowl on his face.

Scott, “Let’s start, the twins are right behind us.”

And as they all sit Aiden and Ethan arrive.

Stiles sits next to Isaac after checking with him without words if it’s okay, on his other side Peter takes unfortunately place.

After everyone is seated Peter says, “So again who is our dear Stiles seeing? I mean you all know that this is important information, don’t you? Our second in command can’t date just anyone.”

Isaac looks decidedly onto his feet.

Stiles, “It’s none of your business!”

Peter moves closer and almost whispers, “Oh it really is!”

Stiles can see how Isaac has to control himself.

Scott, “Peter back down, we have other issues to discuss.”

Peter leans back a bit and gestures Scott to proceed.

Scott, “Okay, so Allison’s dad found a bit more information about the shadow warriors it seems that they have to be summoned by someone but he also said that he has it under control, so maybe we should actually discuss something else.”

Scott looks unsurely to Derek who gives him an encouraging nod, or a Derek version of encouraging which means he nods without scowling.

Scott, “We need to do a bit more stuff together as a pack to strengthen our bonds and I thought…”

Stiles is listening intently he knew already that they needed to do more as a pack but he is proud of Scott that he finally came to the same conclusion or at least listened to Derek. For a moment he doesn’t think of Peter, which is always a mistake and suddenly he has Peter’s fingers tracing Isaac’s mark he is so surprised that he can’t jerk back in time.

Peter, “It’s really nice handy work, almost as if from a were…”

Peter doesn’t get out what he wants to say because he is tackled by Isaac who is fully transformed and who pins Peter to the ground just a moment away from slicing him with his claws.

Everyone jumped up in surprise and Stiles is stunned into silence.

Scott, “Isaac!”

Derek, “Peter!”

Isaac slowly retreats and transforms back again.

Peter stands up and dusts invisible dirt off of himself then looks at Isaac determinedly with a smirk, “Interesting.”

Derek, “Okay so let’s just get it over with! Isaac and Stiles you two are together, aren’t you?”  
Stiles moves a bit in front of Isaac, who looks down at the floor blushing.

Stiles, “I really don’t think that that is any of your business! So let him alone!”

Peter, “I am fine with letting him alone, he is the one who tackled me for an innocent…”

Isaac interrupts Peter with a growl and Stiles says, “Sure innocent! I don’t believe for a moment that you didn’t plan to get a reaction from someone and you are an old creepy bastard who should have stayed dead. I can admit that you are sometimes helpful but if you want my or any of our respect then you have to start getting a grip on yourself.”

Peter weighs his head as if considering what Stiles just said, “Maybe, let’s see what the future brings. Just answer me this why did you choose him, I mean I get the whole looking like a Greek god thing, but I really don’t see how he can be up to your wit.”

Stiles moves closer to Peter scowling at the werewolf, “You don’t need to understand anything that concerns me! But don’t ever underestimate Isaac, he is the only one who realized when I wasn’t feeling well, he is the only one who intervened when you were an asshole and asked me afterwards how I felt, he is the only one who helps me even if I ask him not to! And even if he didn’t do any of that he would still be one of the most empathetic, loyal, strong, simultaneously soft and passionate people I know!”

When Stiles is finished with his little speech he realizes that everyone is staring at him speechless, Lydia is grinning, Allison is smiling and even Ethan and Scott have tiny smiles on their faces. Derek looks unsurprised and Aiden is rolling his eyes in bored annoyance. And Isaac is just looking at him his mouth slightly open, shock in his eyes.

Stiles swallows, “But like I said it’s not important we should go back to meeting stuff, Scott was saying something.”

Stiles just wants to sit back when Isaac moves closer and presses his lips on Stiles’s.  
Stiles is so surprised that he can’t reciprocate for a moment, but then they really kiss, in front of everyone. When they come up for air Stiles feels slightly dizzy and unimaginably happy, because Isaac didn’t run.

Scott, “Well now that we have settled that let’s sit down again.”

They all sit down and Isaac takes Stiles hand into his. Stiles can’t stop grinning. Scott could tell him right now that they have a new Kanima problem and he wouldn’t care.

Lydia, “So you are now officially together and we don’t have to act like we don’t know what you are doing?”

Stiles gives her an annoyed look.

But Isaac just smiles at her, “We are together.” He hesitates for a moment and then looks at Stiles unsurely, “If that’s okay with you?”

Peter, “Oh my god, don’t ask such stupid questions when he is so obviously in love with you.”

Isaac looks at Stiles questioningly and Stiles blushes but nods, “Of course it’s okay with me and … Peter’s right I am in love with you, not that I wanted to tell you that in front of our whole pack.”

Isaac still looks at Stiles seeming somewhat stunned, and he stays silent, and like always Stiles can’t bear that for long.

Stiles, “So what do you think? Is that okay?”

Stupid question!

Peter, “You two really deserve each other one more oblivious than the other!”

Isaac leans towards Stiles and gives him a short sweet kiss when he backs up again he whispers very quietly so that only Stiles and Scott who sits next to Isaac can hear him, “I am in love with you too.”

Stiles can feel his heart stop, how can life be so perfect what did he do to deserve this? Then he remembers spending hours in a pool to keep Derek alive, fighting against a Kanima and a murderous Peter and being beaten to shit by Gerard and he thinks yeah okay he might really deserve this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So all good things have to come to an end and that is it for this story, I really appreciated all of your comments, thanks! And I hope you loved it as much as I Ioved writing it!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic and I hope you liked it!  
> Ah and I love the AO3 community and all the stories here (and the especially dedicated Teen Wolf fans)!


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